Word: figaro
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Georg Solti, the Paris Opéra's principal guest conductor, led Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. A light had been glaring in his eyes all evening and, leaning away to avoid it, he had already broken two batons. Then, early on in Act III, he stabbed himself in the temple with the point of his third baton. Blood poured down into his right eye, dripping onto the score and music desk. Onstage, Count Almaviva was alone, plotting revenge against his uppity manservant, Figaro. Solti went on beating time with his right hand and sopping...
Hand Cranks. Finally, the Count's aria ended. Solti scurried to the conductor's dressing room. It was an opportune moment to abandon the podium, because the opera had moved into a recitative section. Thus while Figaro was discovering that he was the long-lost son of two people he could live without, Solti was holding cold compresses to his head. Like the seasoned pros they are, the members of the orchestra began the subsequent sextet by themselves. His arms beating as he ascended into view, Solti returned to his place. His wound turned out to be minor...
...podium was Claudio Abbado, the company's former music director who, at 43, is a conductor of international stature. The production was conceived and staged by Italy's Giorgio Strehler (see box). For Strehler, it was one of three moments in the spotlight. His staging of Figaro was the first hit of the Paris Opéra's run in New York. This week La Scala will introduce his production of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra...
...many an opera buff the music is all well and good, but what really counts is the thrill of encountering a glamorous big-name conductor-such as Paris' Sir Georg Solti (who will conduct Le Nozze di Figaro and Otello) or La Scala's dashing Claudio Abbado (Macbeth, La Cenerentola, Simon Boccanegra). Or being present when an important artist breaks through into international stardom-as, say, Paris' dulcet-voiced soprano Margaret Price (the Countess in Figaro, Desdemona in Otello) may well do this time. Before La Scala and Paris wind up their two-week stands (Paris will...
Some of the bitterest attacks came from Saint Laurent's compatriots, who have a fairly good history of deploring innovation in the arts. "I'm a friend of Yves," expostulated Le Figaro's fashion editor Viviane Ch. Greymour. "But I didn't congratulate him on this collection! It's folklore, a show, theater, dreams." Another complaint-as if buyers of haute couture rode the subway -was that Yves' cloaks and skirts are "too wide to pass through the Metro turnstiles." The unkindest cut came from a jury voting during the week of the showing...