From the moment that audience members enter the Montana Theatre for Montana Lyric Opera’s production of “The Marriage of Figaro,” it is clear that this won’t be a traditional production of Mozart’s most famous comedy.
In front of the stage curtain, an enormous, white, lower-case ‘r’ lays precariously toppled above the orchestra pit – the scantest fragment of an unformed idea.
The orchestra begins to play the opera’s overture – itself a series of fragments of musical ideas – and the curtain rises to reveal more letters: an ‘a’ and an ‘e’ tilted sideways, an ‘o,’ and an ‘m’ laid on its back. As the small but well-drilled orchestra dashes toward the overture’s finale under the baton of conductor Luis Millan, a group of people in peasant-like clothing scurry on stage and rearrange the letters – though still into nothing that resembles a word.
Thus the stage is set for a distinctly modern production of one of the most enduringly beloved operas in history, a 225-year-old comedy in which mixed-up words, misinterpretations, and concealment form the very basis of the humor and beauty before aligning themselves into the ultimate meaning of it all. [Read More...]
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On Wednesday, Montana Lyric Opera opens its production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.”
It is an opera with no direct historical connection to Missoula other than a few scattered local performances that took place centuries after the Austrian composer’s death. It is an opera sung in Italian about characters living in and around a palace in Seville, Spain.
And yet if ever there were an old opera for the here and now, it is this one. [Read More...]
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By any measure, the program of music performed by the Missoula Symphony Orchestra on Saturday and Sunday was unusual. For the season-ending pair of concerts, the ensemble lurched from a foreboding overture, to a nostalgic concerto, to a single movement from a much longer symphony, and finally to a highlight-reel of instrumental numbers from an opera. During much of the program, the orchestra itself was cut to a portion of its normal forces, only to bring on extra firepower for the finish. Even the featured soloist, Ana Vidovic, arrived on stage toting an instrument rarely seen in the context of orchestral music: an acoustic guitar.
Yet by any measure, this was one of the most consistently fine performances put on by our local orchestra in modern memory. In this musical mish-mosh, magic was made. [Read More...]
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Missoula Symphony Orchestra conductor Darko Butorac says that he always begins with a simple principle in mind whenever he sits down to program a concert for the orchestra: diversity.
“I really like contrasts,” says Butorac. “I don’t ever like to serve the same type of food for my guests at dinner.”
But, in the case of this weekend’s season-ending pair of concerts, Butorac says that the “music-geek” in him couldn’t help but be attracted to subtle parallels between the two main courses on the menu, Richard Strauss’ “Rosenkavalier Suite” and Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez.” [Read More...]
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