Word: counts
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...tension inside the bomb shelter seems almost as charged as the rocket fire outside. The volunteers pass around a few communal cigarettes, wishing aloud they were smoking something stronger. I try to count the number of Palestinian rockets that are being fired at us, but after a while I lose track and give...
...those who kept count, the visiting Crimson picked up 24 hits on the afternoon to thoroughly humiliate Brown. Joining Stenhouse on the hit parade were first-baseman Bingham, who stroked three hits in four trips to the plate, centerfielder Charlie Santos-Buch, who went 4-for-6, and suddenly-super catcher Chuck Marshall, who turned in a 4-for-5 day and included a four-bagger for good measure...
...Barber of Seville (which comes in the first half) is a comedy, in which the intelligent barber aids a romantically inclined count (James Bundy) to gain the hand of the object of the count's affection, stealing the beautiful Rosina from under the nose of her nasty guardian (Ralph Zito). All ends well, he who laughs last laughs best, and--though we are left with a measure of sympathy for the ward-less guardian--the curtain closes on the first half with great good humor...
...Figaro, at least as presented in this version, is a little less cutesy. To begin with, there's a major shift in mood: Figaro is not straight comedy, which The Barber certainly is. Instead, it is a fairly cynical look at marriage (the four-years-later episode of Count Almaviva and Rosina's romance), the master-servant relationship (the Count repays Figaro's first act help by demanding the droit du signeur of Figaro's bride), all made more complicated than necessary by intrigues and mishaps. The cast manages generally to overcome the mood-change by keeping the tone...
There is an argument to be made in favor of the playwright, suggesting that the link between the plays was essentially a political one. In this light, Figaro would have to stress the inequality of the friendship between man and master, as seen in Count Almaviva's failure to return Figaro's help in the second half of the play. That argument, however, would have little evidence to support it except the final chorus, which includes lines like, "But hear the thunder from the left, denouncing property as theft," and is sung to the tun of the British Labour Party...