Tonight, the Tufts Opera Ensemble brings a little bit of the Paris Op?©ra Comique to Alumnae Lounge .
A variety of popular opera scenes, including one from Bizet's "Carmen" and two from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," will be featured at the performance.
Most will know "The Marriage of Figaro" as the uplifting aria that dumbfounds the entire prison block in "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994). But before cinema rolled around, "Figaro" was a regular on the Italian and French stage.
Skirting the line between tragedy and comedy, "Figaro" was adapted from a 1784 "bedroom comedy" that mocks the privileges and pretensions of the nobility.
One such privilege included the right for nobles to take the place of the groom during their servants' wedding nights. This law, known as Le Droit du Seigneur, factors into the plot of the opera when Figaro's soon-to-be wife, Susanna refuses to sleep with Count Almaviva (the opera aficionado will remember him from "The Barber of Seville").
The Count then threatens to prevent Susanna's marriage due to a contract Figaro made with Marcellina (a noblewoman Figaro is in debt to and promised to marry should he not repay his debt). A few subplots and misunderstandings later, the cast finds itself merrily and heartily celebrating Figaro's wedding.
A scene from "Carmen," will also be featured tonight. A mainstay of the opera gamut, "Carmen," remains one of the most widely known operas worldwide.
Carmen is a gypsy employed at a Seville cigarette factory in the 1820s. Her lover, soldier Don Jos?©, is a bit short-tempered; when Carmen eventually chooses Escamillo, a bullfighter, instead of Don Jos?©, the latter flies into a murderous, jealous rage.
"Carmen" opened in 1875 at the Paris Op?©ra Comique, and broke the mold of standard French melodrama at the time. Unlike other female protagonists in opera, Carmen was a carefree rebel who broke the law and was eventually killed off in the end.
Co-director of the Opera Ensemble, lecturer Carol Mastrodomenico, expects the performance to go well. "The students are very well prepared and I feel the concert will be full of energy and excitement," she said.
All students in the ensemble are required to study voice and are also partially responsible for the production of the performances, assisting with props, stage management and publicity. Ensemble members rehearse two hours a week during the semester, and finish up each semester with a final performance.
"Opera Ensemble gives vocally advanced students the chance to bring music and drama together through opera and operetta," Mastrodomenico said. The ensemble offers a varied scenes program which spans different musical periods in the fall and performs one act operas in the spring.
Tonight's performance will be fully staged and costumed, as are all Opera Ensemble presentations.
Sections from Mozart's "Don Giovanni," Mechem's "Tartuffe," Poulenc's "Dialogue of the Carmelities," and Moore's "Ballad of Baby Doe" will also be performed alongside the pieces from "Carmen" and "Figaro."
