There really was a Figaro, once-not a barber, not in seventeenth-century Seville-but unmistakably the same loveable, egotistical, gregarious, and salty character who has nudged and winked at audiences for two centuries in versions musically enlivened by Mozart and Rossini.

   The real Figaro began life as Pierre-Augustin Caron, in the rooms above his father's watch shop on a back street in Paris in 1732 (the same year that saw the arrival on the planet of George Washington and Franz Joseph Haydn). Like successful smooth operators throughout history, young Caron turned unfavorable events to his favor by transforming the notoriety surrounding a minor legal scandal (another watchmaker had stolen some of his ideas) into enough attention to get his foot in the door at Versailles. Once off the front pages and into the boudoirs of the palace, he promptly married a rich widow ten years his senior and took the name of a village she happened to own-Beaumarchais-as an additional surname.

   And it is as Beaumarchais that he is known to posterity. Blessed with constant energy and a polymathic intelligence, ranging from horology to musicianship to extraordinary literary talent, Beaumarchais, with the smooth skill of the fictional barber he later created, maneuvered himself quickly into the center of court and intellectual life in 18th-century France.

   Like Figaro, Beaumarchais absorbed and embodied the contradictions of the era. Although revolution was in the air, the aristocrats and the Bourbons still reigned. And Beamarchais, with his Figaro-esque charm and energy, was their darling-subject to fashion and fad, of course, as evidenced by his moments of unpopularity and even, at one point, imprisonment.

   On one hand, he curried royal favor by traveling to England to collect and burn an entire printing of a book critical of Queen Marie Antoinette; on the other, he published at his own expense, and at some personal risk, censored works of Voltaire. His diplomatic machinations (he was also a secret agent) played a fundamental role in the entry of France into the American Revolution on the side of the Americans; he thus made an essential contribution to the creation of the nation in which we live today.

Click here to read more.

As you probably know, Gioachino Rossini wrote The Barber of Seville when he was quite young. But, did you know that by "young," we mean six years old! Rossini was born on February 29^th of a leap year. He had only had six birthdays even though he was 24 at the time. 

TDO: I hear you're from Alaska.

VG: "Fairbanks, Alaska, born and raised."

TDO: Do you still call that home?

VG: "Yeah. It's still my home - my family lives there. My husband is Italian so I live also in Italy near Venice. I'm kind of covering all time zones. It was a great place to grow up, we had a lot of culture and we had a lot of arts and participation in the arts for the community; so that's where I got my start."

TDO: So, you are married, do you have children?

VG: "No, no kids. My husband has kids so I have step-kids."

TDO: Well that's nice, they're not yours so...

(She laughs as if she knows exactly what I'm talking about.)

TDO: How about hobbies? Do you have time for hobbies?

VG: "Not too much. I took Donato (Donato DiStefano - Doctor Bartolo) out to an electronics store yesterday because - actually electronics are, kind of, my hobby because I travel so much that electronics are usually the lightest way of carrying a lot of material with me. So, I have all of my scores and stuff most of the time on my computer. I've got over 400 gigabytes that I travel with! Other than that, I bought a little computer game that I plan to play in January... if all goes well."

Click here to read more about Vivica Genaux.

   This fall The Dallas Opera begins a year-long celebration of its 50th Anniversary. If you have derived joy and inspiration from The Dallas Opera, help sustain its high standards by becoming a member of the Orpheus Legacy Society. The OLS is comprised of opera lovers who plan for the Opera's future through estate planning in their wills or trusts. Orpheus Legacy Society members are recognized throughout the season with a listing of their names in Playbill.  

   Members also are honored each spring with an elegant, exclusive event. On March 20, 2007 Orpheus Legacy Society members will be welcomed to a private home for a reception followed by an intimate concert by Dallas Opera Young Artist Ava Pine. 

   Please consider making a planned gift to the Opera during this historic season to help ensure that the company will continue to serve the community for another 50 years. It can be as simple as adding a codicil to your will.

   Help perpetuate the vision those leaders had 50 years ago and give a gift to future generations. For more information, please contact Cynthia Young at 214-743-1088.

Baltimore Opera is currently staging its own new production of NABUCCO in which, the traditional encore of "Va, pensiero" is staged as an audience sing-along! "No bouncing ball," says music critic Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun, who added, "...an old-fashioned opera can certainly withstand old-fashioned treatment, but it would have been fun to find something richly imaginative onstage to match the ever-fresh force of the music."

All we can say is, get to Dallas by Saturday.