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Bx Opera marries ‘Figaro’ to English lyrics By Nic Cavell ncavell@riverdalepress.com
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ove over, Metropolitan. In May, the city will see a Bronx-style “Marriage of Figaro.” When Mozart’s classic debuts at Lehman College’s Lovinger Theatre on May 2, it will include at least two arias — those of Marcellina and Basilio in act four — that were cut from the celebrated Metropolitan Opera production that opened last fall. “Even seasoned opera goers who have seen Figaro 20 times at the Met in the last 30 years may never have heard these arias before,” Bronx Opera Company founder and “Figaro” conductor Michael Spierman, 71, said during a recent rehearsal at the Amalgamated Houses’ Vladeck Hall. “The basic structure of this opera involves a count who is not only the hero, but is revealed to have foibles,” Mr. Spierman said of the 18thcentury comic masterpiece. “It’s based on the work of the French playwright Beaumarchais, who was one of the great movers and fomenters of discontent with the aristocracy.” The Met’s multimillion-dollar “Figaro” featured impressive architectural machinery with lattices and chandeliers. The Bronx Opera Company is aiming for an intimate performance, in the spirit of every production in its 48-year history. And — like all Bronx Opera productions — it will be delivered in English. “When audiences come to a foreign language production, it’s with a certain detached quality,” Mr. Spierman lamented. And for the actors — all of whom, in this production, are native English speakers — “there’s a certain lack of the gut” when delivering a riposte in a foreign language. “There’s something more immediate to it,” agreed soprano Smitha Johnson, who is playing Barbarina in the Bronx after performing in Italian-language productions of “Figaro” for other companies. “But it’s more than the languages,” she continued. She said the Bronx Opera Company’s sparse sets and young performers give audiences a highly personal experience. “The future of opera is contemporary — it’s performed in lofts in Brooklyn, in churches… there are even venues that have used donation-based tickets,” said Ms. Johnson, 27.
AN UNDERSTUDY reads music from the second act, above. At left, Ms. Hermann works on hitting the right notes.
hat Bronx Opera also builds, the actors said, is
community. “In opera, you travel to sing in a lot of other places,” said Alex Hahn, 28, an understudy for the actor playing Figaro. “But there’s a connection through the city that made this cast. We even ride the subway together.” At the rehearsal, the opera’s first cast ranged across one half of Vladeck Hall’s checkerboard tiles under dim lighting. While the second cast shadowed them on the other side, Mr. Spierman reminisced about the very first Bronx Opera performance — Mozart’s “Così fan tutte,” or “Thus do they all.” “November 24, 1967,” he said. “It happened in this same room.”
BRONX OPERA ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Michael Spierman, above. At left, Perri Sussmann, 28, as Cherubino and Halley Gilbert, 30, as Susanna.
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Photos by Adrian Fussell
ALLYSON HERMANN, 30, as Countess Rosina and Halley Gilbert, 30, as Susanna rehearse with Shane Brown as the title character in the ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ at Vladeck Hall in the Amalgamated Houses on April 23.