An evening of culture, a night at the opera, and not the Marx Brothers' film but a bit of Mozart.
This performance was by Opéra de Baugé, a visiting company, for one night only. Their take on this was to transpose the setting to ante-bellum America. The Duke becomes the plantation owner and his power over the slaves echoing, if not exceeding that of the Duke's "droit du seigneur".
I did not know it was a comic opera (I thought Mozart was proper, serious music); it more resembled the Bryan Rix school of low comedy, there was everything except the vicar with his trousers down. So you get sublime music with some good laughs thrown in.
Picture courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/operadebaugeattherose
At one point the young swain Cherubino (on the right of the photo) disguises himself in women's clothes. Apparently this role is normally played by a woman so here we have a man playing a woman's role dressing up as a woman who is normally a woman playing a man dressing up as a woman. Hmm.
I am not much of an opera buff, in fact I am not an opera buff in any way shape or form, but I thought the singing was good and our friend Kate who came with us and sings and knows about this stuff averred the same. If you want a bit of culture you wouldn't go far wrong with this and in the excellent setting of the Rose Theatre.
More pictures at https://www.facebook.com/operadebaugeattherose.
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