Today: Best Opera to see with a friend.
Rossini's Le Comte Ory
That is Juan Diego Florez in a dress. And Diana Damrau masquerading as a cupcake. Say what you want about the lightness and fluff of Italian opera; Le Comte Ory had me howling in my seat. I wish I could have seen the Met broadcast with a friend; none of my colleagues would be suckered into it after I got them to see Lucia. But this opera is so fun, so silly and bright and simply frou-frou that I just know that MY set of friends would have been on the floor crying with glee more than once. JDF wasn't at his best that night, but I can forgive him for that: his wife had their first baby an hour before he went onstage.
In terms of taste, I am moving away from Rossini and more towards the heavier operas (I've always tended to prefer dramatic to comic anyway), but Le Comte Ory was like the cake you get after a really healthy meal: sweet, light, totally worth every bite. The music is superb: sparkly and sophisticated, and funny. I think even without the words or the acting, this music would make me grin. But luckily we DO get the words, and we get the following fun scenes:
*A randy count dressed as a hermit
*A countess dressed as a cupcake (I'm sorry, I can't get over the costumes in the Met production)
*A chorus of men masquerading as nuns, happily boozing,
*An operatic menage a trois that is really more funny than racy.
And that is why I would go see this with a friend. Or six.
I leave you with the boozing, male, "nuns":
2 comments:
They were totally playing this on KUTV this Sunday! Unfortunately, I couldn't sit down and watch it, so I didn't catch the whole story, but Graydon continuously reenacted the 'trust your HEART' part for the next two days... do you know what I'm talking about? :) Oh, Graydon.
Which part was that? Because I can totally see Graydon acting it out, if it's the part I'm thinking of. Man, oh man, I miss you guys!
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