{"id":554,"date":"2012-01-04T08:04:52","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T13:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=554"},"modified":"2012-01-04T08:04:52","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T13:04:52","slug":"mayor-rob-ford-gets-central-role-in-his-own-sunday-afternoon-at-the-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2012\/01\/04\/mayor-rob-ford-gets-central-role-in-his-own-sunday-afternoon-at-the-opera\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Rob Ford central character in his own Sunday afternoon at the opera"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ford in 2011 National Ballet Nutcracker. Photo: Keith Beatty\/Toronto Star<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here’s a fun piece of news: Mayor Rob Ford is the main character in a new absurdist opera being presented by University of Toronto Faculty of Music students on Jan. 22<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s kind of bigger than life. And he generates an awful lot of energy around him from things that he does. So he\u2019s a very interesting catalyst,\u201d librettist and director Michael Patrick Albano told the Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale.<\/p>\n

It looks like the opera includes a scene where Ford goes to Heaven, to discover that God looks an awful lot like Margaret Atwood. There is another scene where Ford is judged by a jury made up of Toronto librarians. The score is by UofT composition students.<\/p>\n

You can read the whole article here<\/a>. There’s also a bit more information, courtesy of BlogTO here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although the UofT effort is absurdist, it’s not difficult to imagine Rob Ford as a classic Pantalone from commedia dell’arte. If I were suggesting a quick adaptation, I would borrow\u00a0 Donizetti’s Don Pasquale<\/em>, renaming it Don Roberto<\/em>, and transfer the role of Malatesta to, say, Adam Vaughan.<\/p>\n

If you have any fun suggestions, send them along to suchacritic@gmail.com, and I’ll post them here.<\/p>\n

To further prime your imagination, here is “Bella siccome un angelo” from Don Pasquale<\/em>. Instead of describing a lovely bride, imagine Malatesta (Roberto de Candia) singing to Don Pasquale (Alessandro Corbelli) about an alluring lakeside mall cum<\/em> amusement park, joined to downtown by a sleek, curvy monorail:<\/p>\n