Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart comes in at No. 2 on a list of the top composers of all time, right behind Johann Sebastian Bach. But he still pops up before such greats as Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner and Franz Schubert. And 13 students and community members will be performing one of his most famous operas — The Marriage of Figaro next month.
Zack Brasfield, a senior in vocal performance, said, “I enjoy the work of Mozart. His music adds comedy to the way everything plays out. I have always enjoyed Mozart operas.”
Don Maxwell, professor of music, said, “It’s tough to put on a show like this because there’s a lot of time involved in it. The opera is long. We’ve cut it a lot and it’s still at least three hours long.”
Emily Clements, a junior in vocal performance, said, “This is the first full-length opera we have done since I have been here. So I was really excited to try out and get cast. The biggest thing to me was realizing how challenging operas really are.”
In addition to 10 students, three community members are performing in the production as well.
“It’s certainly one of the greatest comic operas ever written, of course, by the great Mozart. The more you’re around it the more you realize the genius of the man. You’ve got two or three stories going on at the same time,” Maxwell said.
Despite the complexity and the length, Maxwell said it was perfect for a young cast.
“We have a lot of young students in the cast, freshman and sophomores,” Maxwell said. “We felt that this was probably a good choice of shows mainly because it does involve a lot of characters. In a lot of operas there’s only four or five roles. We have three community members in the cast. We had a gentleman covering one of the parts who was student teaching and it just got to be too much.”
With two weeks left to go before opening night March 7 in Akin Auditorium, the cast and crew agree that a lot of work needs to be done before opening night.
Brasfield said, “It has been all about putting in the rehearsal time and now it’s all a matter of fine tuning.”
Still, Maxwell, at rehearsal Feb. 25, said, “We always wish we had more time. We were snowed out a few weeks ago so that slowed things down. There’s actually quite a bit to go because we worked the music first, and then we have done very little of that because the past few weeks have all been staging. We’ll be getting more and more into that this week.”
Richie Heussner, senior in vocal performance, “The show will be ready in time for sure. We have had a lot of really hard workers in this opera.”
Additional reporting by Ethan Metcalf
CAST
- Count | Billy Brasfield
- Countess| Jeanette Perry
- Figaro | Zack Brasfield
- Susanna | Emily Clements
- Marcellina | Alexis Goodman
- Bartolo | Johnathan Woodward
- Basilio | Tanaka Madyara, Richie Heussmer
- Don Curzio | Mark Arnold, Cody Thomas
- Cherubino | Sharon Mucker
- Antonio | John Wilson
- Barberina | Jordan Smith
- Stage Manager | Whitney Hogue
Bugs Bunny as Figaro
