In the Wings

“Rosina is an old friend, but she never gets boring,” says mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack. “To sing the same part all the time would get boring if nothing ever changed, but each new production, each new director, each new concept makes everything different.”

Strolling through the streets of the city as he flits about from house to house and job to job, Figaro enjoys a freewheeling lifestyle limited only by his own imagination. The circumstances of Rosina, the opera’s principal female character, could hardly be more different.

Contralto Marian Anderson was thrust into the public spotlight after a controversial rejection from one of the nation’s prominent concert houses. She went on to make a landmark debut as the first black singer at the Metropolitan Opera and helped spark further action in the Civil Rights Movement.

Julie d’Aubigny led an incredible life full of adventure and defied expectations for “ladylike” behavior. She carried on public love affairs with both men and women; often dressed in men’s clothing; was once sentenced to death; and achieved acclaim on the leading operatic stages of Paris and beyond.

During the 12th Century, Hildegard von Bingen achieved great success as prioress and abbess, founding two convents in addition to being an author, composer, visionary, and prophet. She wrote the first non-liturgical musical drama, considered by many musicologists as one of the first operas.

The DISSENTERS & REBELS of opera: Jeanne d'Arc, Patron Saint of France. She defied her social status, her gender, and held firm in her faith that she was selected by God to win a war for France.

Even as Tosca faces personal danger, she imagines the world beyond her immediate circumstances and makes clear that she is a person of depth and substance.