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July 2009
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Le Nozze di Figaro

I know that I’ve promised a post about what I did last Thursday and I’m please to report that I’m a lot happier with the second draft.

Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to finish revising it (some parts need to go) and uploading the related pictures to Flickr.

PsudeoWife, her real husband, and one of their friends visited me Friday night—we cooked, talked, and watched Little Miss Sunshine. Saturday we slept in—I got a haircut—and then we hung out some more.

On my way back from getting my hair cut, I noticed a poster announcing performances of Le Nozze di Figaro by the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar. I’d never heard of the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar—but a quick investigation (hello Google!) revealed that it’s a locally operated opera school staffed by world renown professionals, including one from Indiana University.

After a brief discussion, we decided to go, inviting along another Jena person, making for a pleasant fivesome evening of tea, tapas, and opera. It was a bit challenging for the not quite operatic ones of us—the opera was performed in Italian, a language that not one of us understood. PseudoWife is an opera lover, and she was able to follow along.

The student-performers hail from around the world, and although I am far from an expert, I can tell you that Saturday’s Figaro, Benjamin Wagner, from the USA, was quite good receiving a long ovation for his performance.

The performances are put on in a not quite ready for prime time theater with chairs that a bit uncomfortable for the length of the performance. Upstairs at the Volkshaus Weimar (Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 8), tickets are a bargain at 7,50€/5,00€.

In August (20-23) and in September (17-20), Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte will be performed. Normally I wouldn’t bother telling you this, but the company’s website is squarely aimed at attracting students and seems to omit any relevant information that might be of interest to local people who want to attend.

This might help explain why the auditorium was two-thirds empty—which was a shame considering the quality.

4 comments to Le Nozze di Figaro

  • Prashanth

    what a coincidence! I too watched LMS on the same day!!

  • Thank-you for coming to see out show. I was quite delighted to know that people are talking about this program from an audience point of view outside of the Weimar community.

    Sincerely,

    Natasha Guindon (Saturday night Susanna – in the peach dress)

    • It was nice seeing the show, and I wish you lots of luck in the future (is “break a leg” a reasonable thing to say to an Opera singer?)

      For the record, I live in Weimar, although the friends who came with me do not.