Word: plot
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...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 in any of them would hurt the opera considerably...
Certainly the plot of "The Marriage of Figaro" requires a tongue-in-cheek approach; on paper, it is the kind of convoluted intrigue that gives opera a bad name. Figaro (Brian Saccente), valet to the Count Almaviva (Josh Benaim), is about to marry his sweetheart Susanna (Sarita Cannon), but the Count also has his eye on her. Although the Count has abolished the droit du seigneur, which traditionally allowed the lord to deflower any bride on her wedding night, he is tempted to revive it in Susanna's case. Though a philanderer, the Count is fanatically suspicious of his innocent...
Clearly, the plot is an elaborate game: the challenge is to maneuver all these characters into the expected happy ending. Exactly how that comes to pass is, as one might expect, incredible; but opera was never famous for its realism. Suffice it to say that mothers are reunited with their long-lost children, people are locked in closets and jump out of windows, and there is plenty of opportunity for cross-dressing. Only the music justifies the brazen silliness of the story, and in this case, the trade is well worth making...
...much more insight into men and the the male perception of the sex war than into gender relations themselves. The hysterical portrayal of the medallioned, chest-wigged Casanova on the verge of his carefully catalogued ten-thousandth conquest comes across much better than the rather insubstantial angry feminazis. The plot is just as dominated and enslaved by the experiences of Snaporaz as a housewife is by the male oppressor...
Indeed, Fellini controls this movie as only he can. The circular plot leaves Quentin Tarantino blushing. The diversity and clarity of his flights of fancy sweep the viewers off their feet. But that variety only masks Fellini's focus on his hero and his gender, at the expense of the embittered woman the film purports to bring to life...