ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Eastman Opera Theatre begins its 2006-2007 season with an opera by an up-coming young composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who wrote his romantic comedy La finta giardiniera (The Disguised Garden Girl) in 1775, when he was only 19.
While it had a successful premiere in Munich, Germany, the work has seldom been performed in the past 230 years. Eastman Opera Theatre will celebrate Mozart’s 250 th birthday year with this production of one of his operatic rarities. (It was previously presented at Eastman in 1987 as Lunatics and Lovers, in an English translation by the late Richard Pearlman, longtime Eastman Opera Theatre director.) This production will be sung in Italian, with English surtitles.
“With its fresh, surprisingly passionate music and characterizations, La finta giardiniera will be a delightful discovery for fans of Mozart’s mature operas,” says Steven Daigle, Dramatic Director and Division Head, Eastman Opera Theatre. “Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall is the perfect venue for it.”
Performances of La finta giardiniera are Thursday, Friday and Saturday November 2, 3 and 4 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 5 at 2 p.m. in the Eastman School’s Kilbourn Hall, 26 Gibbs Street.
Tickets are $20, $17, $14, and $10, with discounts to University of Rochester ID holders, and are available at the Rochester Philharmonic Box Office, 108 East Avenue (10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday), or by calling 585/454-2100. Any unsold tickets will be available at the Kilbourn Hall Box Office one hour before the start of each performance.
If you’re interested in learning more about La finta giardiniera, the Friends of Eastman Opera will sponsor pre-performance talks that are free and open to the public. The talks, presented by Professor Russell Miller of Eastman’s voice department, will be held in Room 120 of the Eastman School on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, November 3, 4 and 5. Each talk begins one hour before curtain time.
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Calendar Listing:
Thursday – Saturday, Nov. 2 – 4 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 5 at 2 p.m.
Eastman Opera Theatre—Mozart, La finta giardiniera
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
Eastman School of Music, Kilbourn Hall
Tickets: $20, $17, $14, $10 (discount with UR ID)