Le Nozze di Figaro

MIAMI UNIVERSITY OF OHIO (2020)

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO by W.A. Mozart, based on the play by Beaumarchais
Conductor: Ben Smolder
Cast: Wilkens/Browning, Woodbrey, Kramer/Uchiyama, Wielgos/McLeese, Barker/Eugenio, Trybus/Maynus, Terribilini, Orr/MacManus, Greco/Cruise, Teegarden

Production Team: B. Smolder (director), N. Muni (scenery & lighting), T. Lusht (costumes)

Design Concept: Working within a very modest production budget, the goals for this university project were to provide a more or less realistic and period set that could also work for various other operas over the years. There is no stage crew available for this opera program, so it had to be easily moveable by the cast from scene to scene.

Given all of this, I opted for a three-sided set on a very large wagon, which could be rotated as well as re-positioned on the stage. There is enough architectural detail to provide a classical period ambiance while remaining neutral enough to work for various operas and to provide surfaces for projected imagery, once that element is added in future uses. A few projection samples below: