Word: figaro
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...York Journal-American. "Non-Mozartean shenanigans," snorted Howard Taubman in the Times, while the Herald Tribune's Paul Henry Lang denounced it as "a travesty." Occasion: a new production, staged by Broadway's Cyril Ritchard, of Mozart's comic masterpiece, The Marriage of Figaro...
...with laughter. When the young page Cherubino pours out his adolescent romantic yearnings in Act I, he does so in Ritchard's version while holding on to a pair of women's drawers draped across a clothesline full of underthings. At the act's end, when Figaro mockingly congratulates Cherubino on his future military career, he punctuates the aria Non più andrai with a solid boot to the rump. But Ritchard's worst sin, according to the purist critics, was turning the Countess from a person of "breeding and dignity" into a delightfully sprightly lady...
Actually, the critics of the Met's new Figaro were on shaky ground; there is no evidence that Mozart, whose sense of humor was bawdy and mercurial, saw in Figaro anything but superb entertainment. Director Ritchard feels that even a Mozart opera should be theater, not merely oratorio, based his interpretation on a study of the original Beaumarchais play from which Lorenzo da Ponte wrote the libretto; Figaro, he thinks, is shot through with a kind of "Hogarthian exaggeration" too often muted by Mozart worshipers...
...Messel's costumes, especially the glittering pair for the Contessa, worn with stunning stylishness by Lisa Della Casa, have a grand line that is perfectly suited to both the Opera House stage and the spirit of Figaro. Against the predominantly gray background of the settings, the pastel dresses of the chorus and ballet and the vibrant yellows and reds of the principals' costumes produce wonderful, eye-filling tableaux...
Reliable report has it that Figaro shall be played during the Thanksgiving week end. Take advantage of his trip and mail in your ticket orders early...