Love and Marriage
13 July 2004
A classic satire about the foibles of lovers and the presumptions of class, The Marriage of Figaro has been a favourite amongst opera lovers ever since it premiered in Vienna in 1786. Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, took an already popular play by Beaumarchais and removed the ‘political’ content that was likely to have offended the Viennese imperial censors and faithfully translated the rest into Italian.
Originally set in Seville in the late 18th Century, Opera Hunter has replaced the European setting with a cattle station in central Australia in 1917.
For this production Count Almaviva is transformed into a complacent station owner, who has little respect for either his wife (Rosina) or the Indigenous workers who are employed to work on his land. The characters of Susanna and Figaro are Aboriginal, and members of the stolen generation.
By recreating the text in this way, the production is given a political edge, with audiences asked to consider our own chequered history.
The first-time director of the production, Ghillian Sullivan, began her operatic career overseas, singing as a principal for ten years with such companies as the Glyndebourne Opera, the Scottish Opera, the English National Opera, Opera North and Staats Oper Koln.
In recent years she has sung regularly with Opera Australia, performing in productions of La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto and has played the Countess Rosina in the Opera Australia production of Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro).
Under Ghillian Sullivan’s directorship, Opera Hunter is looking to establish itself as a company where tertiary music students and High School students of Music and Drama can gain professional standards of experience. For the production of The Marriage of Figaro all the singers, except for two, are from the Hunter region including seven High School students in the chorus.
More Information
The Marriage of Figaro in the Outback
21 July – 8 August
Lake Macquarie Performing Arts Centre, Newcastle
Tickets: $22 - $35
Bookings: (02) 4929 1977
Website: http://www.opera.org.au/
