The Missouri Symphony this weekend is bringing a fresh twist to Mozart's classic comic opera “The Marriage of Figaro": The opera is being staged Saturday and Sunday at the Missouri Theatre, with the design and themes from the television series “Mad Men.”
KBIA's Ailing Li sat down in studio with MOSY Music Director Wilbur Lin to chat about the innovative changes and artistic vision behind this production.
Here's an excerpt from their conversation:
Ailing Lee:
I saw on MOSY’s poster this over is actually inspired by the hit series "Mad Men." How will incorporating elements from "Mad Men" change the music?
Wilbur Lin:
Yeah, so the music will stay the same. So one cool thing about the opera is that you know, not just opera but in theater, you can have your own take on how you want to do production, right? So in the case of you know, obviously, Mozart's opera was set in the in the 1700s. But what we're going to do is what you will see is everyone will be dressed, kind of in the mid-century kind of style, everything will act in that mid-century style. We are basically modernizing Mozart's opera and then put everything to be a set in the 20th century, not exactly a completely modern but kind of inspired by that "Mad Men" era. Aesthetics, the way that people move, everything on stage will look like ... definitely inspired by that era and that kind of that kind of atmosphere that kind of the way people carry themselves.
Ailing Lee:
Do you have a personal favorite music from the opera?
Wilbur Lin:
Yes. towards the very end of the fourth act finale, there are four acts so for the fourth act is basically the last act. There's a portion that the whole cast is on stage singing pretty slowly, a beautiful Chorale. And I was actually here rehearsing this yesterday. And I was thinking to myself, this is why we perform because these couple of seconds, really make everything shine.
Ailing Lee:
What is it like to have performances here in the Midwest? Because I feel like in Columbia, we don't have a lot of opera?
Wilbur Lin:
Yeah, well, first of all, what I do admire what we have here is Mizzou actually puts on operas at least once every year, which is a wonderful thing. And what MOSY wants to do is that we don't want to replace that, we want to enhance what we already have around here. And ... this is a great question. This is exactly why we perform, right? We don't need another opera company in New York, we don't need another opera company in Chicago, it's the places that don't get exposure that deserve these things. And one of the great things about not just the Missouri Symphony, but the Landlocked Opera Company, which we work with, is that we bring in people from around the country. People want to sing, people want to share. ... While some of our guest artists are singing this role for the first time some of our players are playing it for the first time. But more importantly, some of our audiences might be experiencing this for the first time. And that's why we do what we do.
Ailing Lee:
What do you hope the audience takes away from "The Marriage of Figaro?"
Wilbur Lin:
Well, I want the audience to experience that themselves. There are so many things that they can they can enjoy themselves with. Obviously, the beautiful music, the staging. And the interesting take that we're trying to make, the spin we're trying to make ... music, drama, vision, visually. There's something for everyone.
