2 groups team up for shortened 'Marriage of Figaro'

For some time now, Joel Rosenberg's Paradigm Chamber Orchestra has had a successful collaboration with Robert Breault's Utah Lyric Opera Ensemble.

The two groups have worked on several productions together over the years including Gioachino Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" and Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Yeoman of the Guard."

Their partnership continues this weekend when they'll perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" in a somewhat abbreviated concert version in Libby Gardner Concert Hall. Missing will be the recitatives, choruses and part of the Act 2 finale. Rosenberg will conduct and Breault will stand in for the recitatives and narrate.

While they have teamed up on other projects in the past, this will be their fourth formal collaboration, and Rosenberg is looking forward to it.

"I'm extremely pleased to collaborate with Robert Breault again," he told the Deseret News. "He has some great student singers, and this will be a wonderful chance for them to sing Mozart with an orchestra."

The operas that the two ensembles have jointly presented have been varied, ranging from Georges Bizet's "Carmen" to Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" and Giacomo Puccini's "La Bohème" and "Madame Butterfly." This is their second Mozart opera together, after "The Magic Flute," and while Rosenberg would have liked to have done something else he jumped at the chance to do "Figaro" when Breault suggested it.

"I agreed to it because it's such a fabulous work," Rosenberg said.

Lorenzo da Ponte based his libretto on a work by French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais, as Rossini's librettist did for "The Barber of Seville." "The action in 'The Barber of Seville' precedes that in 'The Marriage of Figaro,'" Rosenberg said, "although Rossini's opera was written after Mozart's." In Rossini's opera, the Count marries Rosina through Figaro's machinations, angering Dr. Bartolo, who wanted to marry the girl himself.

This sets the stage for Mozart's opera. Dr. Bartolo now seeks revenge on Figaro for taking Rosina away from him while Figaro, his fiancee Susanna and the Countess (Rosina) scheme to stop the Count's philandering ways.

"Beaumarchais made fun of the aristocracy and attacked them for their immorality," Rosenberg said, "and even though da Ponte toned it down, he and Mozart still had trouble getting permission to have 'The Marriage of Figaro' performed in Vienna."

They finally did, but the work wasn't the success they had expected it to be. It wasn't until it was later staged in Prague that it received the acclaim it deserved.

When the Deseret News spoke with Rosenberg, he had just had the first rehearsal with the leads and praised them.

"We have a very good cast who are well prepared," he said. "I think these will be good performances and this will be an excellent opportunity for people to hear another opera this season."

If you go…

What: "The Marriage of Figaro," Paradigm Chamber Orchestra and Utah Lyric Opera Ensemble, Joel Rosenberg, conductor

Where: Libby Gardner Concert Hall

When: Feb. 12-13, 7:30 p.m.

How much: $10 general admission, $8 students (at the door)

e-mail: ereichel@desnews.com