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OperaNotes Review
Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall
The Italian Academy Foundation, Inc
March 6, 2004
By Charlene Frank
La Cambiale di Matrimonio
(The Marriage Contract)
Music: Gioachino Rossini
Conductor: Alfredo Bonavera
Libretto: Gaetano Rossi
Cast:
Clarinia
Laura Kate Moore
Tobia Mill: Robert Garner
Fanny: Yana Eminova
Edoardo Milfort: Kurt Alakulppi
Slook: Morgan Smith
Norton:
Rubin Casas
It was the perfect size house for this delightful one act opera buffa. Tonight Alice Tully Hall hosted a concert of Rossini's La Cambiale di Matrimonio, a silly little taste of Rossini that was really lots of fun. I know I've said this before, but how lucky am I to live in a city where I can see a small opera that I knew nothing about, sit next to man who is a composer of modern operas, and hear a young talented cast who kept a smile on the face of everyone in the audience AND go to the Met to see Don Giovanni the next night? I love this city.
I went to see Cambiale di Matrimonio especially to see mezzo-soprano Laura Kate Moore (Clarina) and baritone Robert Garner (Tobia Mill), and they made this night quite a treat. A double treat is that I get to see Mr. Garner again on Sunday in Fauré's Requiem at Carnegie Hall. But it was not only the two I went to see who made the evening so much fun. Yana Eminova (Fanny) had a sweet and powerful soprano and Morgan Smith's (Slook) baritone filled the house. It was a terrific cast and the accompanying orchestra conducted by Alfredo Bonavera was the icing on the cake.