The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
FUNNY, FRANTIC ‘FIGARO’
Yale Opera presents one of Mozart’s finest at the Shubert Theatre next weekend
It’s no mystery that Ted Huffman has become a successful director of opera, which he will do Feb. 13-15 when the Yale Opera program brings one of history’s most popular operas, “The Marriage of Figaro,” to the Shubert Theatre.
“It’s a really fun show; I love it,” Huffman said recently during a break in rehearsals. “It’s very funny, but also has kind-of deeper political or social commentary running through it the whole time.”
Greenwich-raised Huffman grew up in a church choir, he said, “and we sang Mozart, Bach and Britten and a lot of repertoire written by the same composers who write opera. So I think from a very early age I had exposure to this great music, and so from then on, it felt very natural to want to gravitate toward opera.”
Huffman, 37, studied theater and music as a humanities major at Yale (Class of 1999). But he loved theater from a young age and had already been in a few Broadway shows, as an actor, by the time he arrived at Yale.
“I’d been used to eight shows a week and that whole world,” said Huffman, who majored in humanities to gain a deeper understanding of Shakespeare plays and other theater. In a major with an openended curriculum, he could study literature, art and music history.
“It was really perfect for me because I studied French, Italian and German while I was at Yale, as well,” Huffman said, which allows him to direct opera around the world today, including the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Festival Aix-en-Provence, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Canadian Opera Company and the Aldeburgh Festival.
“It’s a very free-lance lifestyle, so you end up traveling, ideally if you’re busy, 10 months out of the year,” Huffman said.
This original production, which continues the plot of “The Barber of Seville” several years later, gives us a “day of madness” in the palace of Count Almaviva in Spain. Rosina is now the Countess; Dr. Bartolo is plotting revenge against Figaro for thwarting his plans to marry Rosina; and Count Almaviva has transformed from the romantic youth of “Barber” into a bullying skirt-chaser. Various operatic high jinks ensue.
Dominique Trottein will conduct the Yale Philharmonia.
As Yale School of Music folks note, many consider “The Marriage of Figaro”
to be their favorite opera. Composer Johannes Brahms said, “In my opinion, each number in Figaro is a miracle; it is totally beyond me how anyone could create anything so perfect.”
“It has one of the best, if not the best, stories, or librettos, of any opera,” Huffman said, referring to the work of Mozart collaborator Lorenzo Da Ponte. “It’s one of those pieces where you don’t stop to separate music and drama, whereas in a lot of operas, intentionally, the two can feel more separate ... and that’s what draws me to this work.”
Huffman directed Yale Opera’s production of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” last spring, and Trottein conducted “Così fan tutte” at Yale in 2006.
Adding to that, the opera will be performed at historic Shubert Theatre, now celebrating its 100th Singers in the Yale Opera program are graduate students such as Brad Walker and Meechot Marrero who at some point will be ready to launch big-time careers. anniversary season.
Singers in the Yale Opera program are graduate students often ready to launch big-time careers, “and that’s one of the big things about the Yale Opera: It sets a high standard,” Huffman said.
Performances will be Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Feb. 15 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $19-$50, $13 for students, and are available at the Shubert Theatre box office, online, or by calling 203-562-5666. More at music.yale.edu.
Asked about opera’s reputation and what’s being done to make it more accessible to a generation raised on FM pop or iTunes playlists, Huffman agreed that “Figaro” can be a “gateway” piece and that there shouldn’t be a big division between Sondheim musicals or “Jersey Boys” and Mozart’s opera, which has stood the test of time.
“I’ve been in musicals; I’ve done musicals; I love musicals. ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ is a musical that was written a couple hundred years ago,” Huffman said, adding that any disconnect by a viewer quickly fades in the face of its quality.
“For me, in the larger scheme of ... opera being a challenging art form that doesn’t always draw crowds like other art forms ... I think there’s a larger movement right now in the world. I see it in a lot of places that I’m working, not just in Europe, but a real feeling among the younger artists that it’s important to start treating opera like it’s a kind of theater. Because it is a kind of theater.
“And I think it’s been very detrimental over the past few decades that it took on an identity that was separate from theater – and also very much also connected to social strata. And I have absolutely no interest in making a piece just for people of a certain social strata. And of course, education can feel like a barrier because to come to a piece of theater that’s in another language can feel daunting. I think that’s where music can be very helpful because music is such a universal language. ... That’s one way you can bridge the language gap. The other way, of course, is supertitles, which are everywhere now.”
The opera will be sung in Italian with projected English translations. Huffman said he wouldn’t single out any of the 16 students in the Yale Opera program since there are seven lead characters and most are double-tasked depending on which performance you attend.
“The amazing thing is