Opera Company of Middlebury to Present THE ITALIAN GIRLS IN ALGIERS, 5/30-6/7

A critic once wrote that if the Three Stooges had written an opera libretto, it would look something like Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers (L'Italiana in Algeri).

"It really is more fun that you should be allowed to have in an opera house," says OCM executive director Douglas Anderson. The wild and irreverent comedy will take the stage at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater from May 30-June 7.

Now in its 11th season, the feisty little company is attracting national attention. It was featured in a recent article in Opera News, and is drawing the attention of singers and agents throughout the opera world. Its fans are devoted. Every performance is a sell-out.

The company has a reputation for taking chances. "We aren't afraid to take on work that's less well-known. We had great success with Massenet's Thaïs and Puccini's La Rondine, operas our audiences normally wouldn't get a chance to see." Anderson feels that The Italian Girl in Algiers falls into that category. "When people think about Rossini they think Barber of Seville, but Italian Girl is an absolutely stunning opera that really deserves to be seen and enjoyed."

The story concerns an Algerian king who is tired of his harem and dreams of having an Italian girl. As operatic luck would have it, one shipwrecks on his shore. But she's so seductive and so intelligent that she soon has the king wrapped around her little finger.

The OCM version will be a little different. "The plot of this opera is so wild that traditionally companies have taken a lot of liberties with it," says Anderson. His version will be set in America in the 1950's. Anderson's rationale is that this is the period when everyone in America wanted an Italian girl. "Gina Lollibrigida, and especially Sophia Loren were our reigning sex symbols," says Anderson. He finds so many parallels with American life that it was an easy matter to relocate the opera "to a time and a place we can recognize. It's much, much funnier that way."

The title role will be played by mezzo Cherry Duke, who has sung at the New York City Opera and Glimmerglass Opera. Baritone Daniel Klein returns to the company to sing the sex-crazed Mustafa. Tenor Thomas Scott, who has sung at the Metropolitan Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, plays the Italian girl's long lost lover, and Burlington's Sarah Cullins makes her company debut as the comically suffering wife.

"I think operatic comedy should be laugh-out-loud funny - something that isn't always the case." Anderson promises a number of outrageous surprises.

Conducting the OCM orchestra will be Maestro Emmanuel Plasson, who maintains a busy schedule conducting all over the world but still manages to conduct in Middlebury twice a year. Maestro Plasson is so pleased with Vermont that he recently purchased a house in Middlebury.

The Italian Girl in Algiers will be presented at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater on May 30, June 5 and 7 at 8 pm, with a 2 pm matinee on Sunday, June 1. Tickets are $55-65. A special understudy performance is Friday, June 6. Tickets are $25. All tickets may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, 802-382-9222, at the THT Box Office (Mon-Sat, noon-5 pm) and at the door, if available.