That resourcefulness is precisely how we’ve been experiencing the pandemic, in having to really re-assess life in completely new ways,” he says.
Figaro, this factotum and jack-of-all-trades, is a symbol of determination and wit and decency and resourcefulness. “That struck me as a beautiful connection. “It’s this sense of renewed optimism and freedom, the strength of women, the idea of light triumphing over darkness, the universal humanism that exists in both pieces.
But Ozawa says they share more than one might think. The two operas are very different - “Fidelio” takes place in a prison, while “Barber,” based on a play by Pierre Beaumarchais, is laugh-out-loud funny. “Then I realized he was serious - and it dawned on me that this was an amazing opportunity.” “At first I thought he was joking,” he says. Ozawa allows that he was shocked when company general director Matthew Shilvock suggested incorporating set pieces from “Fidelio” in this “Barber.” The sets were built, notes the director, but the production was cancelled due to the pandemic. Opera’s production of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” which was scheduled to open the 2020-21 season last fall at the War Memorial Opera House under Ozawa’s direction. The result, says Ozawa, is a kind of hybrid - “a little bit in between the remote projects that have been happening around the country, and being inside an opera house, with the energy and unpredictable-ness of live performance.” Sung in English and performed without choruses and recitatives, the production runs 90 minutes without intermission, with conductor Roderick Cox leading an 18-piece orchestra positioned in a tent behind the stage.
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