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.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnju5ei0ebbPbBYi6N1w8YumtBpAWkJznPb4gejU_3aPjyh9xHxOAFAv7PY67VrWHBFrs_5I-qHfFiKCXqvdzU73g5LoC1dNf7oyiEmfVRpmHSQp4FoZjmwjxYufvp1Q78nz105g/s1600/nozze-figaro-01.jpg)
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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