It’s round 3 of “Eye on the Cast,” this time for Faust. I wrote about bass David Pittsinger earlier in the year, during his first run on Broadway in the Tony-winning revival of South Pacific. Now he’s at it again, taking the Broadway stage as Emile De Becque until April 12. You can read more about Pittsinger and his decision to give up a gig at the Met for South Pacific in this recent Hartford Courant feature. After Pittsinger sings Mephistopheles in Faust with Madison Opera in May, he’ll head back to Broadway, but not surprisingly the Met has come calling again: next season he’ll make appearances in Alban Burg’s Lulu and Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the famed New York institution.
This is genius! Underworld Productions in New York offers a Cosi for the American Idol-era:
UP’s “Così” sticks with the original until the very end, when it introduces a little modern mischief that the impish Mozart might have relished. The opera is a comedy of three men, three women, a little fiancé-swapping, a wedding and the unanswered question of who is marrying whom. Underworld Productions will ask audience members to pair up the characters for the final wedding scene. Electronic voting will take place at intermission, and the cast will respond by implementing the favored ending.
Read more here.
Madison Opera has a new and improved Facebook page. Before, we functioned as a “group” on Facebook that people became “members” of, but now we are an officially registered organization that people can become “fans” of. It’s a little confusing, but basically pages are a more recent phenomenon that allow for lots of cool things. For instance, after I write this, it will show up on our new Facebook page. After I post a video to YouTube, it will show up on Facebook. Our event listings are neater on the new page, and it also allows for the rapid fire sharing of links and photos and any thought that crosses my mind, really, sort of like Twitter (but I’m not going there quite yet). On the surface it all looks the same (website, blog, Facebook), and in many ways the information is the same, but it’s being presented differently, and with different levels of user intereaction (Facebook being the most interactive, the website being the least). So take the plunge, and become an official fan of Madison Opera at our Facebook page!
It’s always sad when a production ends, but as the couples sing at the conclusion of Cosi fan Tutte, “Happy is the man who looks / At everything on the bright side.” And that’s pretty easy to do right now: audiences loved it, as did the critics (click here and here to read reviews), and we sold out the Capitol Theater for both performances. Onward and upward to Faust!
UPDATE (12:13 p.m.): A review from The Isthmus is now posted here. “Madison Opera’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte (‘All women are like that’), was a musical feast and a visual delight, ideally fitted to Overture Center’s Capitol Theater.”
Photos by James Gill.
The Cosi fan Tutte cast after the show
The first review is in from the Wisconsin State Journal and the entire cast gets kudos for a “well sung, well acted, well staged, nicely directed, and intelligently played” production of Cosi. Most importantly, the sold-out crowd in the Capitol Theater was loving it, laughing heartily and clearly enchanted by the music. Can’t wait for Sunday!
It’s round 3 of “Eye on the Cast,” this time for Faust. I wrote about bass David Pittsinger earlier in the year, during his first run on Broadway in the Tony-winning revival of South Pacific. Now he’s at it again, taking the Broadway stage as Emile De Becque until April 12. You can read more about Pittsinger and his decision to give up a gig at the Met for South Pacific in this recent Hartford Courant feature. After Pittsinger sings Mephistopheles in Faust with Madison Opera in May, he’ll head back to Broadway, but not surprisingly the Met has come calling again: next season he’ll make appearances in Alban Burg’s Lulu and Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the famed New York institution. 
