When I learned that there were comp tickets available for Mischief, Merriment & Mayhem, my first thought was, Oh well, I have a massage scheduled for that night. A moment later I said to myself, What, are you nuts? Reschedule the massage and go to the concert! And I'm so glad I did! The singing and acting was wonderful!
The show opened with a cute scene from Il Matrimonio Segreto. Two sisters were arguing over (uh… I don't remember what, probably a man) and their aunt was trying to keep the peace. It was so cute! The sisters kept bickering and the aunt, finding herself exasperated, sank to her knees to meditate in an effort to keep calm. The scene culminated with the sisters belly-whopping (is that what it's called?) each other and running off. Wonderful singing, wonderful acting. Plus they were wearing these great, shiny, colorful satin robes.
Next was a beautiful Mozart aria from La Clemenza di Tito sung by tenor John Viscardi. It's hard to find words to describe the beauty of his voice. Clear and bright, full of feeling… just lovely.
On to spookiness- Le Contes d'Hoffman – This was just wonderful. The lighting made huge shadows behind the singers – it was really creepy! Paola Gonzalez was fabulous as the dying Antonia. And Jenni Bank sat so still it was suprising when she began to move and sing. Ricardo Sepulveda was perfectly evil. Very entertaining!
Back to silliness – Rossini of course! People dressing in disguise trying to fool each other. The scene was from Le Comte Ory. It was hilarious. I love how the nun entered the scene from the audience. The three singers had great comic timing. This was just wonderful. The expressions on Kala's face were just priceless!
Then we were treated to the popular "La Donna e Mobile," sung by tenor Patrick Layton. His facial expressions and gestures added just the right touch to his performance.
The caption on the dress rehearsal photo said he was singing A Mes Amis. I wish I could have heard him sing that! Maybe I'll find him in the green room during Saturday's Romeo performance and make a request.
Next: Mozart. Don Giovanni. Need I say more? Well I will! WOW. Mozart is the master of everyone singing different things at once, and the group on stage pulled it off with ease. It was awesome.
Then we were brought back to Rossini, this time, La Cenerentola. Cinderella. She's so good to forgive all the people who were mean to her. Sara Fanucchi made Rossini's crazy coloraturas sound so easy. The choreography was great. I found it interesting that the music for this aria is the same as "Cessa di piu resistere" from the end of Barbiere.
After a short intermission, the show continued with what I believe was the highlight of the night: Zulimar Lopez. Wow. WOW! WOW! 'nuff said. I'm glad she didn't trip over the fallen barrette.
After recovering from Ms. Lopez's stunning performance, we were treated to another Mozart piece – one of my favorite arias from one of my favorite operas, La Nozze di Figaro. I don't recall the name of the aria. (I can still love it without knowing the name, right?) Ah the Count. Ah baritones. Love Rob's voice.
Ok then it was back to the master of silliness, Rossini, with something from L'italiana in Algeri. This was hysterical! The choreography was fabulous. Everyone had such great looks on their faces and excellent comic timing.
Next we were treated to a lovely Donizetti aria by Gabriel Gunsberg.
The show culminated with an entertaining trio from, you guessed it, Rossini. This time it was Guillame Tell. I got distracted part way through this one because I thought I heard someone's cell phone vibrating behind me. I peeked back and saw that an audience member had dozed off and was snoring! How???
So maybe I'm biased since I've seen all these singers perform over the past few weeks and have gotten to know some of them, but I thought the entire evening was fabulous.
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