Friday, April 9 and Saturday, April 10 at the Brown Theatre, 315 W. Gianni Schicchi is probably the more well-known of the two and features the famous aria, " O mio babbino caro." Even non-opera lovers have probably heard this one, as it was prominent on the soundtrack for the lovely Merchant Ivory film, A Room with a View. If you made a similar regrettable mistake to mine, we have a chance to redeem ourselves this weekend when the University of Louisville Opera Theatre performs two one-act operas - the comic Gianni Schicchi and the dramatic Suor Angelica by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who also composed classic operas, La Boheme and Turandot. What an opportunity missed! I knew I should have made the effort, even though there was another show that weekend and March Madness basketball games to watch. Can we kill the one we love with love? The fiery beauty of Bizet’s music, where one unforgettable aria follows another, has worked year in, year out to make it the world’s most performed opera.I was already regretting having missed English tenor Ian Bostridge at the University of Louisville's School of Music when I opened my New York Times afterward to see the notice of his concert at Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center. Composed to a libretto by Meilhac and Halévy based on Prosper Mérimée’s novella, the opera exploded the boundaries between tragedy and comedy with a modernity that caused a scandal at the time. Fate will do the rest. Though immediately regarded as a masterpiece throughout Europe, it took time for Carmen to win acceptance in Paris where it received a lukewarm reception at its premiere in 1875. The first words uttered by Carmen mark one of the greatest entrances in the history of opera and express all that need be said: “Love is a rebellious bird that no one can tame…” With a devilish sway of the hips and a hint of Andalusian flair, the beautiful cigar-maker sets her sights on a soldier: Don José. "And taking the flower from her mouth, she threw it at me with a jerk of her thumb and struck me right between the eyes."
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