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By Matthew Westphal
08 Nov 2006
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| Juan Diego Flórez in the Act I finale of The Barber of Seville, in Bartlett Sher's production for the Metropolitan Opera. |
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| photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera |
It's a long way from "Stupid Pet Tricks," thank goodness ...
Smart Singer Tricks, perhaps.
(And no, that is not an oxymoron, thank you.)
The Late Show With David Letterman presents its first piece of fully-staged opera tonight — and America's flagship opera company makes its Letterman debut — as the Metropolitan Opera performs the finale from Act I of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia ("The Barber of Seville").
Performing will be tenor Juan Diego Flórez, soprano Diana Damrau, baritone Peter Mattei, and basses Samuel Ramey and John Del Carlo, along with the Met's chorus and orchestra (reduced to 12 and 22 members, respectively, to fit the Late Show stage), all conducted by Maurizio Benini.
The Letterman show appearance is a sample of the Met's new Barber — the company's first new staging of the piece in 25 years — by acclaimed theater director Bartlett Sher. For the production, Sher brought together the same design team he used for the acclaimed Broadway musical The Light in the Piazza.
The new Barber opens this Friday, November 10 at 8 pm, and the premiere will be broadcast live on Sirius Satellite Radio's Metropolitan Opera channel (85) and offered in live streaming audio at the company's website (www.metopera.org). The production will also feature in the Met's upcoming program of live high-definition broadcasts into movie theaters, with a simulcast on Saturday, March 24 at 1:30 pm (US Eastern time) / 11:30 am (US Pacific time).
In the meantime, the Smart Singer Tricks come to The Late Show With David Letterman tonight, beginning at 11:35 pm (US Eastern and Pacific time) on CBS-TV.
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| The Act I finale of The Barber of Seville in Bartlett Sher's production for the Metropolitan Opera.
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| photo by Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera |
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