Word: figaro
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...should be mentioned that producer John Cearley and his directors daringly chose to tackle an obscure and risky sleeper of an opera in "Hoffmann"--foregoing the insurance of a familiar crowd-pleaser like "The Marriage of Figaro" or "La Boheme." Although Offenbach was referred to as the "Mozart of the Champs-Elysees" earlier in his career, "The Tales of Hoffmann" was his first real opera, departing from his jokier opera-bouffe compositions of the past...
Differences such as these cast an entirely new perspective on Sunday's concert filled with classical favorites. The program consisted of Mozart's Overture to "Le nozze di Figaro" (The Marriage of Figaro), K. 492, and his Violin Concerto in G Major, K. 216; Rossini's Overture to "L'italiana in Algeri" (The Italian Girl in Algiers), and Symphony No. 2 in D Major, op. 36 by Beethoven. The performance was conducted by guest conductor Andrew Parrott, who has won critical acclaim for his recordings of Baroque music. However, Parrott's expertise and insight into Classical and Romantic music...
Meanwhile, despite the assurances of the world's top Van Gogh experts, doubts about the painting's authenticity began to circulate among an international coterie of art enthusiasts. Stylistically, says Jean-Marie Tasset, art critic for the French daily Figaro, the serene canvas is "atypical" of the frenetic paintings made during the artist's last days. The central walkway is done in a pointillist manner virtually unprecedented in Van Gogh's late works...
...walks, it talks; it vamps, it camps; it does Mozart and Sondheim, Gershwin and Strauss. What more, indeed, could Kate deLima need? Singlehandedly, she's taken over Harvard musical theater; one could hardly imagine a "Marriage of Figaro" or a "Fledermaus" getting off the ground without her. Not to mention a one-woman cabaret act, complete with schmaltz, Catskills-style patter, and a big band...
Nevertheless, some observations should be made. DeLima's roles in Harvard opera have always been the grandes dames -- the Countess in "Marriage of Figaro," and in "Die Fledermaus" as well. That is to say, she has a solid operatic voice, better for power than for subtlety. (Even in this nightclub act, she wore a high-waisted Empire dress of the type made famous by Emma Thompson and Gwyneth Paltrow, an inappropriate but curiously telling choice, as if to declare that she's better suited for more aristocratic pursuits...