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A sparkling premiere of “Giardiniera”

August 27th, 2006 · No Comments

SerpettaNardo: Adriana Kucerova and Markus Werba in Mozart's opera La Finta Giardiniera, Saltzburg, 2006 Mozart was just 19 when he opera-buffa-tified the wacky libretto of La Finta Giardiniera. The naughty antics and scantily clad cast of Salzburg’s saucy new production would have delighted him!

Director Doris Dörrie and designer Bernd Lepel re-imagined its Mozartian garden paths into a huge Home-Depot-like garden store, with the honey-voiced John Graham-Hall as Don Anchise, its lecherous manager.

On this small conceit is confected a delightful mountain of charming absurdities and inventions.

In a stellar production with many fine performances, Adriana Kucerova and Markus Werba deserve special mention for charm and humor as the two servants, Serpetta and Nardo. If you have the chance to see this production at Salzburg, don’t miss it!


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