it's showtime!

Tonight is opening night for the opera, yahoo! I'm excited and I have some friends plus my awesome husband coming. It is so much better to be on stage when you know friends are in the audience. My lame brother is going to Disneyland instead of coming to see me, ruuuuude! Just kidding, I would love to go to Disneyland, well, no I would love to go to Disneyworld. I'm a little Disneyland-ed out. I must have gone there at least 10 times in my life, and there is way more to do at Disneyworld, it is very cool.

So, if anyone is interested and they are going to the opera at UW (Wed, Fri, or Sun) here is a little backstory for some of the characters. While watching the other cast with the surtitles I noticed a lot is left out that might help the audience out. Also, the surtitles aren't actually saying verbatim what we are saying in Italian (which is very frustrating) so some of our staging and gestures might not make sense. I wish the guy who did the translations would have come to rehearsal! Anyway, here is a little background info

Mozart wrote La Finta Giardiniera at age 18

Sandrina (title character) is actually the Marchesa Onesti

• She was previously engaged to Count Belfiore
• Belfiore stabbed her in a fit of jealousy and left her for dead
• She did not die and is now hiding out as a gardener in the Podesta's house (I don't know how to do accents on here, sorry)

Count Belfiore

• He used to be engaged to Sandrina, yadda yadda, same story as above
• Now, it has been arranged for him to marry the Podesta's niece, Arminda
• Belfiore and Armina have never met and they will get married today

Podesta

• He is the mayor of the little town in Italy where he lives and he thinks very highly of his status
• He had a private affair with his maid Serpetta, and promised her that he would marry her and she would never have to work again
• He has arranged the marriage of his niece, Arminda and the Count

Arminda

• She is going to married to the Count
• She used to be in love with Ramiro and promised to marry him, but broke it off

Ramiro

• He is a poet and very sentimental
• The Podesta has taken Ramiro under his wing, but Ramiro doesn't know that Arminda is his niece, they will run into each other later

Serpetta

• The Podesta's maid, she doesn't like her job and always seems to be on a break
• She had a hot affair with the Podesta but he is now interested in someone else, which really makes her mad

NArdo

• He is really, Roberto, the Marchesa's servant, but he is hiding out with her at teh Podesta's house, disguised as another gardener
• He is in love with Serpetta and torments her daily with his pinings

OK, the rest is the plot and I don't want to give that away, so come to the opera and watch the young lovers figure out what really makes them happy.