Mixed Media

Mozart's ‘La Finta Giardiniera’ at Ithaca College

Ithaca College Theatre and School of Music will mark their annual collaboration with a lively production
of Mozart’s Italian comic opera, La Finta Giardiniera. Performances will be held at 8 p.m. on February 19, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, and 29, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, February 24. All performances will be held in the Clark Theatre at Dillingham Center. The production will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.

Written in 1775 when Mozart was just 18 years old, La Finta Giardiniera tells the story of Count Belfiore and Violante, who were lovers until Belfiore stabbed Violante in a quarrel. Mistakenly believing Violante to be dead, Belfiore has become engaged to the very jealous Arminda. Violante, meanwhile, has disguised herself as the gardener Sandrina in order to confront Belfiore. As more complications arise, lunacy ensues, ensuring fits of passion of which only Mozart’s Italians are capable.

David Lefkowich, director of last season’s Ithaca College Theatre production of Handel’s opera, “Acis and Galatea,” returns to guest direct La Finta Giardiniera. Lefkowich has directed productions for companies around the country, including the New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera. An experienced stage combat director, Lefkowich graduated Northwestern University’s School of Speech with a degree in theater and holds a certificate from Ecole-Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

The musical director is assistant professor of music and director of opera and musical theatre Mark Kaczmarczyk. His credits include “Grendel” at Lincoln Center’s “Mostly Mozart” Festival and
conductor of Handel’s Semele and Acis and Galatea at the Detroit Institute of the Arts. He has also performed as a bass soloist in productions around the country.

Two casts of La Finta Giardiniera will alternate performances. The cast includes vocal performance majors Danielle Edwards ’08 and Diana Yourke ’08 as Violante and musical theatre major
Daniel Greenwood ’08 and music education and vocal performance major Dan Prior ’08 as Belfiore. The cast also includes Christina Boosahda ’09, Hilary A. Bucell ’09, Garry McLinn ’09, Sara Mowery ’09, Alexis Murphy-Egri ’08, Megan Palange ’08, and Michael J. Quinn ’08.

The artistic design team includes assistant professor of theatre arts Brian Prather as set designer, Samantha Yaeger ’08 as costume designer, and assistant professor and chair of theatre arts Steve TenEyck as lighting designer.

Ticket prices range from $4.50 to $10 and can be purchased at all Ticket Center outlets, including the Ithaca College Theatre ticket office in Dillingham Center and online at www.ithacaevents.com. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more by calling (203) 260-9508. For more information call (607) 274-3224, (607) 273-4497 or visit www.ithaca.edu/theatre.

A New Kind of Diva

Anna Netrebko is a gifted opera singer who at 36 has already mastered many of the roles — Mimi, Violetta, Lucia, Manon — that used to go to the queenly, temperamental sopranos of the old school, with their furs, their atomizers, their entourages. She is also a media-savvy entertainer from the new school, with the knockout looks, the fans, the celebrity of a pop star. Her “Traviata” at Salzburg two years ago was such a hot ticket that scalpers were reportedly charging $7,000 a seat, and her records regularly top the charts in Europe. In the summer of 2006 she was part of a concert in Berlin that filled a stadium.

Netrebko, whose appearance at the Metropolitan Opera on Dec. 15 in Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” will be broadcast live in movie theaters around the world, has a captivating voice that is both high and deep, lustrous and velvety, and she is one of that growing breed of opera singers who can actually act. She is sometimes compared with Natalie Dessay, the French singer whose face has been on posters all over New York this fall, advertising her mad scene in the Met’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” and who may in fact be technically superior. But Netrebko is the larger presence. She has an earthiness and impishness — a daredeviltry — that may prevent her from ever attaining the kind of rarefied, disembodied sainthood that has been awarded, for example, to the American sopranos Renée Fleming and Dawn Upshaw but that also makes her more fun to watch.

Read the full article here.

You can listen to Anna Netrebko's performance in Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette" on WSKG Radio, December 15th at 1 p.m.

Update: Opera great Pavarotti dead at 71

Luciano Pavarotti passed away this morning after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. The online news sites are full of articles about his life and his death, and many memories are pouring in from fans around the world.

A few links that caught my eye and might be of interest to those of you reading this:

AFP's Obituary

U2's Bono Pays Tribute to Pavarotti

Quotes by Pavarotti (taken from his 1995 autobiography "Pavarotti: My World)

Tributes from around the world

NPR's Tribute to Pavarotti

And, of course, an example of the great man doing what he did best:

Pavorotti reported in 'serious condition'

Opera star Luciano Pavarotti's health has worsened in his battle against pancreatic cancer. The singer, now 71, has been released from the hospital and is now being treated at home, although his condition remains 'very serious.'

The full article reporting this news can be found here.