Bizet makin' a stab at popularity with his third opera, the plot of which is more or less a knock-off of Donizetti's Don Pasquale (though possibly less so than that hearing that would make you think). It didn't work, though, as, for reasons that the wikipedia entry does not specify, it remained unperformed until 1906, well after Bizet's death. It remains very rarely performed, so I was super-psyched to have an opportunity https://www.youtube.com/c/PacificOperaProject/videos to see it (I really don't understand the POP approach; as you'll see, there are a bunch of different videos. Also, don't be fooled by the fact that they're three hours each; for some OTHER inexplicable reason, each one consist of two back-to-back performances, or copies of the same performance. WEIRD.
Anyway, Don Andronico wants her daughter to marry an old rich guy, but she has her own preferred partner, so, along with her brother and aunt, she cooks up a scheme to make him think that she just wants his money, so as to drive him off. Yup. That's about it. The biggest difference from Donizetti is that the title character feels much less central to the proceedings--he just runs off after being alienated, and we don't see him again--and also somewhat more self-aware/less clueless: he's skeptical about marriage in general and this marriage in particular from the the beginning; getting rid of him seems extremely...easy. I don't think it took much effort.
Still, that's neither here nor there, as the music is quite delightful and fun, and there's really no reason this shouldn't be performed more often. I do have some complaints about this particular production, however. The first and probably most important isn't actually the performers' fault, but it's recorded at WAY too low a volume. I turned the TV volume up to the max--one hundred--which I had never done before, and hope never to do again, and even like that it was barely adequate. It's a good thing I remembered to turn it back down after; that could have resulted in disaster.
Second, this uses a stripped-down chamber version of the score. It's okay, I guess, I'm not complaining too much, but boy would I ever have preferred a full orchestra. And third, I hated to say it, but most of the cast, to one degree or another, is not quite ready for primetime. The woman who plays Bettina, the heroine, is particularly egregious. Again, not that I didn't enjoy it, but I would've enjoyed it more with a higher-caliber cast.
Oh, and also, I guess I should mention the ostriches: this performance's conceit is that Don Andronico has an ostrich farm, and that's where all the action takes place. There are stuffed ostriches and a couple people in intentionally chintzy ostrich costumes. It seems a bit excessively "LOL random" for me, but I'm not necessarily opposed to it. I just feel that it's not done super-well here. Not nearly as amusing as intended. A for effort, I guess, but...
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