Organization

Conductor

Stephen Karr

Costume designer

Maggie Green

Singer

Christopher Anderson

Role

Karen Hogle Brown

Brooke de Rosa

Justine Aronson

Tracy Cox

Alex Boyd

Andy Papas

Pacific Opera Project

Der Schauspieldirektor -  (The Impresario)

Los Angeles

United States

Mozart and Salieri square off in this competition of delightful one-act “meta” operas. While the rivalry between these two composers may be a bit overblown thanks to the film Amadeus, this competition actually happened. Emperor Joseph II of Austria sponsored a contest between the two composers on February 7, 1786. In the orangery at the Schönbrunn Palace, the Emperor and his guests sat at a long table. Mozart's German singspiel Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario) was staged first on one end, then the guests turned in their seats to watch Salieri's Italian buffo opera Prima la musica, e poi le parole (First the Music, Then the Words) on the other end. POP recreated this event at the beautiful South Pasadena Library when patrons watched The Impresario on one end, then turned their chairs around and watched Prima la musica on the other.The Mozart was updated to present day and was sung to a new English translation. The Salieri was set traditionally and sung in Italian, with projected English titles.

The plot of The Impresario, which is the more oft performed of the two works, revolves around the struggles of a small opera company trying to make ends meet, while appeasing the demands of the public, their finicky patrons, and those demanding divas who seem to live to make life difficult. With a new English book and libretto by artistic director Josh Shaw, the action takes place at an opera company that may seem very familiar to POP audiences where the over-worked, underpaid impresario and his well meaning and ever-positive assistant balance the demands of their dueling divas Everly Squills and Meryl Shrills all the while pacifying their biggest benefactor Freddy Freecoin.“POP” shots will be taken at everyone from POP staff and patrons to the most famous and infamous operatic personalities of our time.
 

Prima la musica, e poi le parole has a cast of four characters, each depicting a player in the creation of an opera: the Maestro, the Poet, Eleonora, a prima donna, representing opera seria, and Tonina, an opera buffa singer. The plot lampoons everyone and everything in opera production. The Poet is obliged to write his verses to music already composed by the Maestro, who cares nothing about expressing the words in the music. Seria and buffa elements (normally kept strictly apart) collide in a duet of two simultaneous arias, which eventually becomes a quartet shared by all four singers.This unique double bill will featured a new arrangement for string quartet and harpsichord by music
 director Stephen Karr and a new libretto for The Impresario by artistic director Josh Shaw. Maggie Green 
designed the costumes.

Der Schauspieldirektor Mozart

Public

The Impresario

Approved

Photos