Translation for 140 languages by ALS
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowline.
Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail.
Explore. Dream. Discover
.
---Mark Twain

4/13/12

Marriage of Figaro (Edinburgh)

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I entered a caption writing contest and duly won a pair of tickets to The Marriage of Figaro being performed at The Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. Sweet!


Just the reason I needed to wear my new vintage formal dress shirt.


The production is modernized and extremely Scottish -- meaning I didn't catch the bulk of the dialogue - ha! - but the funny bits were just too funny to be lost in translation. The only parts done in Italian were scene transitions sung by Figaro, himself. And, man, the scene changes were fun and interesting to watch. I'm always impressed by set design and literal set changes, whether the stage, per se, revolves or backdrops switch from, say, a winter forest to an underwater world. In the case of Figaro, set against the current banking situation and the pending marriage of Figaro to, both, his lady love and of his company to a much larger and established institution, the scenes changed from one to about four different executive offices plus an outdoor park -- complete with grass, evergreen trees and bushes -- and confetti fireworks!
I've never cottoned to people just singing everything
I must confess: I like going to the opera much more than I like actually sitting through it...in no small part because one, I don't understand the Romantic languages in which most operas are sung and two, I've never cottoned to people just singing everything. With this production, however, eschewing song for contemporary  dialogue (and dialect) I liked it all the more for it.


www.lyceum.org.uk

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