Opera Challenge: Day Twenty-seven

Today: If you could play any one role, what would it be?

For pure fantasy?
Male role: Figaro
Female Role: Sieglinde

Figaro: He's such a fun character! And he's real: he goes through so many emotions, from good humor to bad mood to devious to amused to hurt to joyous. He doesn't stick to any one mood; he's full of himself, but realistic about it, and he truly loves his woman. That, and he has fabulous music. From the Largo al factotum that Rossini gave him to his wonderful Non piu andrai, Figaro is a character whose music expresses his personality. He's loveable because he is so very human.



Sieglinde: She's an interesting character. I think of all the characters in the Ring cycle, Sieglinde is the one who suffers the most. She's kidnapped, forced to marry against her will, ends up having a brief one-night affair with her brother and then watches him die, has his child, and promptly dies herself. And can anyone really blame her? This is perhaps the most sympathetic character in the entire Ring, as I said, and her music is so beautiful and tragic. We learn from it that although she is afraid of Hunding, he hasn't completely dampened her spirit. It takes courage to drug your husband and run off with your brother. And she has that wonderful duet in which we learn all about her fears and hopes and traumas, not to mention the Act 2 scene in which her nightmare tells us exactly what she's suffered. That's a lot for one single singer to credibly act out. It's such a tragic, beautiful role that if I were a soprano, I'd love to sing it.