Word: figaro
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...student cast; last year's one-act Gianni Schicchi and the operetta Die Fledermaus were light comedies, allowing spirited acting to make up for the inevitable vocal shortcomings. This year, however, the Opera has set its sights considerably higher: the production is Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro," one of the most beloved operas, and it is performed with very few cuts, coming in at almost 3 hours running time...
...Figaro" is not demanding in the same way as a Verdi or Wagner opera; sheer volume and range are less important here than lyric grace and vocal agility. But in some of Mozart's more convoluted ensembles--"Figaro" boasts several scenes in which more than six people are singing simultaneously--that agility can be just as difficult as a louder and showier Verdi aria. Just the elaborate recitatives, which are crucial to advance the plot, require a daunting combination of comic skill and vocal dexterity. What's more, "Figaro" has at least five major singing roles, and a weak voice...
With past student operas, it has been easy to be impressed without being really interested, but in this "Figaro", opera was what it should be: entertaining. This is due in part to the choice of opera, one of the funniest in the literature, and the wise decision to perform it in English; but it is also a testament to the enthusiasm and comic skill of the cast, which knew just how much...
...with his entire atelier. Givenchy hands the bodkin of his eponymous house over to 34-year-old English designer JOHN GALLIANO, not such a classical-music kind of guy. Recently, Givenchy's relationship with his backers has been strained, but the couturier is "a happy man," he told Le Figaro. "I am left with the joy of having had the most beautiful profession in the world...
...January/February issue of Lingua Franca, a magazine that reviews academic life, Susannah Hunnewell notes at the end of a report on the Figaro case, "Whatever Loupin's [sic] errors, he may have been on to one thing: Harvard's French department is in some disarray...