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Written by Michael Muckian
Oct 6, 2010
“Mozart was a genius of melody,” says out (and uncannily named) opera star Melody Moore. “What sets him apart from many other composers is that he wrote what is known in the German language as ein ohrwurm (an earworm) - a tune that continues to repeat convulsively in the listener’s ear, one that sticks with you long after the opera is over.”
The pleasure of singing Mozart’s earworms has Moore eager to take the stage next month as Countess Almaviva in Madison Opera’s production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.” The lavish production, which plays Overture Hall on Nov. 5 and 7, launches the company’s 50th season.
At a time when arts groups nationwide are financially suffering, opera’s popularity continues to increase, according to Allan Naplan, Madison Opera’s general director.
“Madison Opera has enjoyed some great success, especially since the opening of the Overture Center,” says Naplan, an operatic baritone who has managed the company since June 2005. “Opera in general is enjoying heightened interest as an art form, and that enthusiasm has had a trickle-down effect for us.”
Opera’s combination of music, drama and stagecraft may make it the ultimate art form, but it also is one of the most expensive. Yet, despite the persistent economic downturn, ticket prices of up to $114 per seat have done little to dampen local enthusiasm or reduce audience sizes. Depending on the work being performed, Madison Opera often sells out, a luxury that many performance troupes can only dream of. Naplan expects just such an enthusiastic response for “Figaro.”
“Le Nozze de Figaro” was the second play in the “Figaro” trilogy written by Pierre Beaumarchais, an 18th-century French playwright/inventor/watchmaker/revolutionary. (Beaumarchais supplied arms to colonists during the American Revolution.) It is technically the sequel to “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” (“The Barber of Seville”), but Gioachino Rossini’s well-known operatic version of the play did not appear until some 30 years later. (Composer Giovanni Paisiello was actually the first to set Beaumarchais’ “Barber” play to music, but Rossini’s work is considered the definitive version.)
The comedic narrative in “The Marriage of Figaro” continues the story of Figaro (sung by New York City Opera baritone Jason Hardy), a barber and jack-of-all-trades who is now valet to Count Almaviva (Metropolitan Opera baritone Jeff Mattsey). In “Il Barbiere,” Almaviva pursued Rosina, who married him to become Countess Almaviva (Moore). In the sequel, Figaro plans to marry Susanna (soprano Anya Matanovic), the countess’ maid, despite the philandering count’s infatuation with her. This sets the stage for the typical operatic shenanigans that ensue.
“The musical challenges to playing the Countess are very few, if any, since Mozart was an absolute genius with line, pacing and writing for the voice,” Moore says. “Given the Count’s predilection for infidelity, the dramatic challenges are to remain calm in the character of the Countess. I believe that Rosina has grown to know her husband, but she still loves him, and we don’t often get to choose how deeply love has burrowed into our hearts.”
“I love singing Countess because the music is outstanding and is so very healthy for the voice,” Moore adds. “It’s like a warm bath to sing this role.”
Moore, who has been open about her sexuality since being outed at age 19, is proud of the support gay audiences give to opera – and all the performing arts. It’s a support sometimes born of different motivations than that of straight audiences, she says.
“Gay audiences champion the arts because the arts may have led most of us to our first taste of expression beyond the strictures of our family lives,” she says. “We may have found heroes in the movies or on the stage that echoed our deep feelings or that gave us permission, by their very presence, to honor the inclination to celebrate ourselves instead of clothe ourselves in shame.”
“I think that ‘Figaro’ is fun and witty and quick and turns the tables of power,” Moore adds. “All those things together surely resonate and appeal to gay audiences, as many of us have learned to laugh through tears, outwit the enemy of intolerance and turn the tables of societal bigotry.”
Madison Opera’s production of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” plays at 8 p.m. on Fri., Nov. 5, and again at 2:30 p.m. on Sun., Nov. 7, in Overture Hall at Overture Center for the Arts, 201 State St., Madison. Call 608-258-4141 or go to overturecenter.com/tickets.
Opera Up Close will offer “The Figaro Preview” at 1 p.m on Sun, Oct. 24, at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Lecture Hall in Overture Center. For information go to madisonopera.org.
