Bravo! Thank you, Pittsburgh Opera for making going to the movie theater obsolete for me. Conveniently, located in downtown Pittsburgh. I was able to grab something to eat before going in to enjoy their performance. Once inside I picked up my tickets and was greeted by Dr. Marilyn Egan Pittsburgh Opera’s Director of Education, who informative me that the Pittsburgh Opera lobby was inspired by the infamous Palace of Versailles.
I was in a museum of opulence as I studied the lobby and was educated on Pittsburgh Opera, with a pamphlet, program book and a pre-talk before the show that entailed the study guide to the Opera, its history, and how it inspired a military leader named Napoleon. And it just kept getting better because they had a bar that served alcohol and non-alcohol drinks, which came with an optional souvenir cup.
I got to “inspire a lifetime of memories” with memorabilia from their performances at their gift shop and even earned a chance to win prizes by sharing my experience on social media by using their promotional hashtags. Now as I make my way to my awesome seats thanks to Christian Cox, Director of Marketing and Communications. I see the banner screen above the stage that will project the subtitles throughout the performance.
As the show begins the lights go off and the orchestra plays a Mozart symphony, then at the end of that instrumental the applause from the audience energizes the theatre as the curtain draws up to the first act of The Marriage of Figaro. At first, I was mad that I had to keep looking up to read the subtitles then down to watch the performance to understand what was going on because I was so captivated by the actor interaction with one another and entranced by the story plot-line.
So, at one point I eagerly anticipation just focusing on the performances because I didn’t want to miss the interplay between the characters. The show was a ‘marriage’, the formal recognition of union between two people as partners in a personal relationship. And what I mean by that is Figaro character was not only ‘married’ to each character in the show but also to the audience because I feel like everyone can relate to each character plot line.
Figaro, a whimsical servant to the Count, who doesn’t need money to be happy because he is already wealthy as he has all the treasures in the world, the love of his wife Susanna, who is being pursued by Count Almaviva. Countess Almaviva longs for the days when her and the Count were in love, but what she can’t achieve from her husband she finds in the Count’s young page, Cherubino.
Heartbreaking, funny and deliciously entertaining. The Marriage of Figaro left me thinking about falling in love, the heartbreak that comes with it, and longing for the days when passion was just as cheerful, colorful, and bright from the audience during the final bow performance. You didn’t need to understand Italian to enjoy the show because the interaction between the characters was so in-depth that the message transcendent throughout their performance!
