how was the production of B&B? Was the cast good? Did they set it in a random time period again?
Not terribly random: Sicily in the 1950's, allowing for some very nice costuming and the occasional classical touch like the time-worn traces of a mural on the back wall, reminiscent of Pompeii. (It lifted up to reveal the single best backdrop I've ever seen in a production: lingering summer twilight, the mainland lights rippling on the water; as fleurdelis28 said, "I can see the wrinkles in the cloth and I still believe it!") The spoken dialogue was in English, which caused some problems for their Béatrice, who was clearly not a native speaker (and even native speakers can have trouble with Shakespeare), but she was persuasive when singing; she picked up instantly with her duet with Bénédict in which each wonders independently why it's so much fun to bait the other, why their heart rates spike when the other's around, and in a spectacular display of denial both come to the conclusion that it must, of course, obviously, be dislike. He was very solid, a whimsical joker throwing himself into the role of lover with as much enthusiasm as he formerly dedicated himself to the mockery of love; I was quite fond of his awed, dawn-over-Marblehead delivery of "The world must be peopled!" Somarone was from some other opera altogether—which I suppose made him perfectly in line with Dogberry, who often appears to have been imported from a much sillier play—but that opera was delightful. Whoever was speaking Leonato was very good. I wouldn't call it my favorite opera by Berlioz, because frankly that's Les Troyens, and I prefer the complexity of the original Shakespeare, but it was lovely music. Héro and Ursule's duets were gorgeous.
no subject
Yes, but I can't change it; it's the title.
how was the production of B&B? Was the cast good? Did they set it in a random time period again?
Not terribly random: Sicily in the 1950's, allowing for some very nice costuming and the occasional classical touch like the time-worn traces of a mural on the back wall, reminiscent of Pompeii. (It lifted up to reveal the single best backdrop I've ever seen in a production: lingering summer twilight, the mainland lights rippling on the water; as