figaro, figaro!

Last night I went with some beautiful Oxford friends (so many of them go to Biola) to see the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart.

We went first to a lecture on opera, given by I think the director and one of the leads. It took place in the commuter hangout place at Biola. Which is beautiful I must say- art on the walls, beautiful couches, rugs, tables, a fireplace, open windows and everything is a shade of aesthetically pleasing. The lecture was followed by dessert, cheesecake, bon-bons, truffles and chocolates. Then we all walked over to the theatre and at one point there were five people from Oxford standing around me, I wanted to cry.

The opera was beautiful. For those who are not firmiliar with The Marriage of Figaro it is a comedy with lots of situational humor and tricky love plots (it reminds me of Shakespeare). There was a lot of talent in this show, the women roles especially. The Countess and Suzanna led beautifully, even though in the first act Suzanna's voice was a litte hard to hear. I think my favorite character was Cherubino. This was a pants role, meaning it was a girl playing a young teenage lovesick boy. She had facial expressions that had me laughing the whole three hours and her physical humor was perfect. As a whole the music, acting, costumes and story were consuming, and I was on the edge of my seat most of the time.