Word: guild
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Handel's Xerxes was first produced in 1783 for wealthy Londoners who allowed themselves to suffer the atrocious libretto so that they might enjoy the Italianate charm of the music and an awesome display of vocal pyrotechnics. Since the Harvard Opera Guild's singers (though competent) are incapable of coloratura acrobatics, and since audiences nowadays expect more from an operatic plot, considerable attention was focused on the opera's "dramatic" element at yesterday afternoon's performance. Besides, card-playing and the consumption of ices between arias are impractical in Agassiz; therefore it was imperative that something transpire on the stage...
...Opera Guild's stratagem involves the substitution of spoken dialogue for many of the recitatives, and the employment of an English translation that wavers between brassy colloquialism and comically stiff couplets. Along with the idiocies of the plot itself, they provided an enjoyable parody of the heroic style. It was difficult to tell at first whether the action was farcial by intent or accident ("Where did I get the nerve?" muses the soprano after telling off Xerxes), but as the melodramatic cliches become less widely spaced the audience turned partisan, hissing the villain with all its might. As is proper...
...recent election the Opera Guild chose Peter H. Brown '60, of Leverett House and New York City, president for the coming year...
...Guild will present "Xerxes," an opera by Handel, on May 7 and 8, as part of the group's spring workshop, which aims at "discovering talent." Kennedy will produce the show, while Brown will handle the direction. Benjamin Cox '61, Robert Scher '59, and Vivian M. Thomas '60 will play the lead parts...
Next spring the Opera Guild hopes to present a student-written production, for the first time in the organization's history...