Le Nozze Di Figaro

[Richard Tarleton]

- and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Tessa Bonner ... and Ferrier only 41 ... and so many, many others (remarkable sngers or not).

I feel a donation to cancer research coming on.

Susan Chilcott (whom I saw as the Countess in 1995) - here she is in Cosí....taken from us at 40, I saw her as Jenufa a matter of months before her death....

[kernelbogey]

Yes, the whole Beaumarchais plot is about the servants outwitting the aristocracy (in the person of the count) and Figaro is just a tiny bit dim.

I took a look at the history of the word comedy in OED as I wondered whether the notion of comedy being more about 'common people' than 'aristocrats' was more central to its use in this context than humour. My OED search was inconclusive,but perhaps more knowledgeable others might comment.

[french frank]

If you think of Greek theatre, tragedy was noble and comedy lower class. And similarly French classical theatre had tragedy which was noble and comedy bourgeois. But I don’t know the origin of the word comedy.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But I don’t know the origin of the word comedy.

According to the OED, a compound of two Greek words, the first meaning either "merry-making, revels" - or, an alternative possibility, "village" - and "Singer" or "Minstrel". So possibly a light-hearted song performed at a party (as opposed to a song sung whilst a goat was being slaughtered).

Some Comedies are, of course, Divine.

[doversoul1]

According to Classical Literature: A very short introduction* by William Allan, Comedy is usually set in ‘here and now’ of the audience rather than the distant world of myth, and the hero is not a mythical hero but an ordinary Athenian who is unhappy about some aspect of life or society and hatches an ingenious plan to realise his/her dream. As such, there is much satire directed at the politicians and generals in charge….

*this is an excellent series (it has Early Music, too )

[kernelbogey]

If you think of Greek theatre, tragedy was noble and comedy lower class. And similarly French classical theatre had tragedy which was noble and comedy bourgeois. But I don’t know the origin of the word comedy.

In the OP there was a question about whether comic operas are funny.

Some might also argue that it isn't funny (I don't think it is) but then very few comic operas are.

My thought was that if Commedia was still thought of in the same way in Mozart's and da Ponte's time as in the above sense (FF) then it would not be obliged to be funny.

[waldo]

Staging aside, isnt the music outstanding? Every note to me seems precious, the arias and especially the ensembles. The invention is remarkable. Mozart 'clicked' with me in my early 20s and Ive never looked back. I think Figaro still heads my top ten list of all time favourites. "All human life is there"!

Agreed. Figaro is one of the great wonders of all time. Also very funny - though you won't find it funny from the music alone. You've got to watch it (DVD will do the job) to see just how the music and action intertwine at such a fine level. (I even find the drunk gardener funny when its done well.........)The second act finale is just off the scale from every possible point of view - absolutely astounding. Anyone who doesn't know it is missing one of the true miracles in the history of music.

The Barber of Seville is really, really funny too - La Calumnia always makes me laugh.

But I do understand people who like to say "Why listen to opera with its silly plots etc" and "Give me a symphony any day over all that bewigged screeching etc" because I used to say just that sort of thing in my early twenties. I wish now that I had kept my mouth shut, but who has the inner strength to keep their opinions to themselves?

As far as performances go, I've recently fallen in love with very recent production at Garsington. I think it was last year, or possibly the year before. Anyway, it was free on OperaVision for a long while in HD. I don't know if it is available anywhere now.......... Anyway, its a traditional staging in a gorgeous setting which make use of the real gardens at Wormsley. No big stars, but a fabulous cast, taut conducting and wonderful performances all round.

[bluestateprommer]

Even more than usual, the phrase "dispatch from America" has some resonance here, perhaps to state the amazingly obvious. Last night was Santa Fe Opera's production of Le nozze di Figaro, originally planned with Laurent Pelly as director, but helmed by Laurie Feldman, as Pelly was unable to travel from France, so that he kind of directed by proxy. The general production inspiration is in the spirit of Jean Renoir's La regle du jeu, not least in the costumes. The furniture is kept to an absolute minimum, with the rotating stage (symbolized in support by large gears) and fractured configurations of the manor to the fore.

Nicholas Brownlee stepped into the role of Figaro after Ashley Riches couldn't travel over from the UK (but Harry Bicket and Iestyn Davies got here, so one wonders, but I digress). NB did a fine job, plus he's a big lug of a guy, so that he could easily carry a kicking and flailing Cherubino off stage at the end of Act 1 easily. When Vanessa Vasquez first appeared on stage for Act 2, I heard someone say that "she looks pregnant", which certainly puts a twist in the story if one incorporates that into the production. VV was good, if not a world-beater, as the Countess, but the audience was clearly with her. It was especially nice to see Ying Fang as Susanna, as I remember that she made a great impression in her short scene from the 2015 Met HD-cast of Tannhauser. YF took what looked to be a slight near-stumble in Act 3, but the guess is that it wasn't intentional.

Some details on the "toxic masculine" side of things are that:
(1) The very end of Act 3 showed the Count chasing after Barbarina, which I've never seen any other production do.
(2) Megan Marion's Cherubino played up a more predatory side of his Act 4 skirt-chasing, to make it kind of not funny, and a bit more dangerous.

The use of broken clock parts as the "garden" was odd, but maybe in keeping with the nominal all-in-24-hours "day of folly" theme.

Just from eyeballing the house, the guess is that Santa Fe Opera is planning for about 2/3 capacity maximum, with "social distancing" mini-banners to allow some space between parties. Masks were mandatory for all patrons. In the orchestra, the string players, timpanist, and continuo player were all masked. The continuo player was at pit/stage right, which made for moments to wonder about occasional loss of eye contact between him & the singers, because of the occasional manor wall mid-stage.

The big picture, of course, is that it's great to experience live performance again. But the Delta variant is the wild card in all of this, as well as general human behavior/folly. We'll see how things go from here.

[Goon525]

Still, Proxy is an excellent opera director.