Musica Lirica Opera Company will be perfoming The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on the 1st, 3rd and 5th of February 2011
Tickets are now on sale at £8.50, concessions £6.50 and under 16s are free. All performances begin at 7.00 pm at the Visual Noise Arts Centre, Michael Hall Theatre School, 19, Preston Old Road, Blackpool, FY3 9PR. The Marriage of Figaro is performed in English with orchestra. Further information is from 01253 696990.
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is recognised as one of the greatest operas, in fact, one of the greatest musical works of all time. However, it has a special place in the heart of Michael Hall whose theatre school and Musica Lirica Opera company is producing the work . “My singing teacher and mentor, the American baritone, Bruce Boyce, starred in Figaro at Convent Garden after the Second World War. It has been an ambition of mine since my student days, at the Royal Academy of Music, to direct this fantastic piece.” Michael himself learned the part of Don Basilio in Figaro in Italian in a weekend as a student, but has had little dealings with the work since until now.
The Marriage of Figaro itself was originally a play by the one- time gun runner, diplomat and toy boy Beaumarchais and was considered such political and revolutionary dynamite that it was banned throughout Europe. Mozart cut a lot of the controversial side of the play in order to get it staged but his audience knew well the bits that had been cut. The Marton version emphasizes the comic element of the story which has a bit of a Carry on Count feel to it. The upshot of it all is that the randy count fancies Susanna who is about to get married to Figaro and how the countess, Susanna and Figaro make him look a fool. The atmosphere of the household is that of Upstairs Downstairs on Speed with everyone knowing everyone elses business and everyone trying it on with the opposite sex. There is something in this farce for everyone including a drunken gardener and his nymphomaniac daughter, a sixteen year old lad who is training to be a randy count by fancying anything in a skirt. “It’s all a bit wild” says Michael.
Our little opera company, Musica Lirica Opera, was set up two years ago and has so far produced Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Mozart’s early opera Bastien and Bastienne each with full orchestra. The youngest performer in this opera is 14 year old Lewis Linaker who also appeared last year Romeo and Juliet with Aiden Grimshaw. The oldest member of the cast is octogenarian George Bland, veteran of the amateur operatic stage. “What we do”, says Mike, “is to mix the ages of the performers so that the youngsters can benefit from the experience of older ones. We are fortunate that everyone in the cast is played by, more or less, the appropriate aged performer.”
Location: please click here
Back to Musica Lirica Homepage