Opera Company of Middlebury UPDATE Fall 2013
From our Artistic Director Douglas Anderson
A lot of comic opera isn’t very funny. Granted, in the largest sense “comedy” simply means that everything ends well. You know the drill: the good guys win, the bad guys are punished, and they throw in a couple of marriages for good measure. But I like comic opera to be
We received a lot of laughs a few years back with our production of Rossini’s Barber of Seville every day to work with his music. That music—effervescent, irreverent, and faster than all get out—accomplishes a very rare thing. Even if you don’t understand the Italian lyrics, the music makes you laugh. The music alone can carry an audience (and a cast of singers) to a giddy height.
I was determined to get back to Rossini, especially as our recent productions have been in the heavier, more tragic repertory. So next June Maestro Plasson and I will tackle Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri (An Italian Girl in Algiers), which to my mind is one of the funniest operas ever written. Someone once said that if the Three Stooges had written an opera libretto, it would look something like L’Italiana. (Continued on Page 6)
From our Music Director Emmanuel Plasson
Rossini’s operatic music has this wonderful sparkly and bouncy spirit to it that can inspire and excite our audiences. It doesn’t only offer a fantastic showcase for singers but also
L’Italiana in Algeri is one of Rossini’s most accomplished and brilliant comic operas. It offers great bel canto displays among incredibly funny stage situations. This opera is probably one of the most entertaining pieces coming from that era.
Some of my recent and upcoming opera engagements: Over the last two years, I have been fortunate to work closely with Opéra de Montréal, which is a wonderful group of people. In 2012, I conducted a beautiful production of Gounod’s Faust and did a revival of Lakmé in September 2013.