Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/14/2020
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
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Get a special behind-the-scenes preview of Merola’s 2021 summer productions, Mozart’s sublime classic Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) and Dominick Argento’s surreal 20th-century gem Postcard from Morocco, with Sheri Greenawald, Director of San Francisco Opera Center and Artistic Director of Merola Opera Program and Kip Cranna, Dramaturg Emeritus of San Francisco Opera.
The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), K. 492, is an opera buffa (comic opera) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 1 May 1786. The opera’s libretto is based on the 1784 stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (“The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”). It tells how the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity.
Postcard from Morocco is an opera in one act composed by Dominick Argento and libretto written by John Donahue that was commissioned by the Center Opera Company (now the Minnesota Opera). It is based on A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. The setting is a train station in an exotic place, 1914. The world premier of the opera was on October 14, 1971, at the Cedar Village Theater, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Conducted by Philip Brunelle and stage direction by John Donahue. The set and costume designer was Jon Barkla and the lighting designer was Karlis Ozols. It was a huge success and went on to be produced in New York and around the world. This was Argento’s first international success. A masterpiece it exemplifies Argento’s abilities as a composer, “Argento’s Music speaks to his audience with a singular freshness and ardour”. Postcard is a moving and artful piece, which asks us to think about our motivations in life.
Presented by Merola Opera Program