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La Cenerentola
reviews
- "But the chief delight of this production turned out to be the visual: Riccardo Hernanez' crazily askew set, Joel berlin's wild and colorful costumes -- some updated, others not -- and above all, Thor Steingraber's
endlessly inventive stage business ... This collaborative effort ... was a very funny show." Opera News
- "Its brilliance came in its being a semi-update. Both 19th-century and modern elements -- the American '50s, actually -- exist together ... This gave the audience a window into understanding Rossini's comedic intent -- crucial, since humor has trouble transcending its time. By poking fun at our own fairytale time period -- those jukebox days of high hairdos and tail fins -- Steingraber helped us understand how Rossini was making fun of his time, too." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- "The production by director Thor Steingraber is wonderfully conceived and executed with stunning attention to comic detail ... Steingraber's musical sensitivity is also impressive. Stage movements are closely dovetailed with humor in the score, which creates a synergy stronger than any imposed concept can be." Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
- "Director Thor Steingraber seamlessly combined the contemporary with the traditional ... it was unequivocally enthralling entertainment." Hong Kong Press
- "Outrageous, skewered, funny -- very funny." Los Angeles Times
- "Steingraber assaults the observer with consistently silly yet never over-the-top comic maneuvers." Los Angeles Times
- "Director Thor Steingraber and his conspirators -- set, costume and lighting designers Riccardo Hernandez, Joel Berlin, and Alan Burrett -- have placed the action in a kind of cartoon version of the 50's ... its giddy tone fits the musical comedy very nicely, thank you ... And he stages two perfectly calibrated ensemble numbers, where the staccato-singing soloists become like a halftime show of robots ..." Orange County Register
- "Thor Steingrabers's glittery production heightens what Rossini wrought by staging it with humor and intelligence." Daily News
- "It all adds up to pure delight. Music's latter-day bluenoses might scream 'heresy' at Thor Steingraber's free-wheeling staging, with the meddlesome chorus popping out of closets and from under banquet tables." Variety
- "It gets a clever, if somewhat precious, staging from director Thor Steingraber. The production design is a kind of PINK FLAMINGOS meets LA DOLCE VITA." KCRW radio
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