Opera Company of Philadelphia • November 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 24, 1999 at the Academy of Music
Scenic and Lighting Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: Robert B. Driver • Costume Design: Richard St. Clair • Hair and Makeup Design: Tom Watson • Conductor: Corrado Rovaris
Count Almaviva: Jason Howard • Countess Almaviva: Nicolle Foland • Susanna: Christine Brandes • Figaro: Richard Bernstein • Cherubino: Rinat Shaham • Marcellina: Heather Meyers • Doctor Bartolo: Aurthur Woodley • Don Basilio: Melvin Lowery
“This is the OCP’s opening full production, and Boyd Ostroff’s new setting surrounds the cast with economical opulence, hangings suggesting rooms of state or a castle boudoir, a formal garden, and the unused space meant to be the bedroom of Figaro and Susanna. Settings are not the opera, of course, but here they meet the twin demands of traditional grandeur and necessary economy.” – Daniel Webster, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/15/1999
“Boyd Ostroff’s scenic and lighting design and Richard St. Clair’s costume design were simply gorgeous.” – Michael Caruso, Chestnut Hill Local, 11/18/1999
“The Opera Company has assembled a strong, youthful cast for a delightfully energetic and lovely Figaro. Simply but effectively staged, the production captures both the funny and the touching aspects of Da Ponte’s story.” – Mark H. Beers, Philadelphia Weekly, 11/17/1999
“Overall, the production was visually handsome in ways that downplayed the opera’s farcical elements. Boyd Ostroff’s set design had doors (essential to farce) in less-prominent places, sometimes with a twilight sky acting as a frame of sorts” – David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/10/2006
” Everything about this production seemed to be geared towards the joyous. Boyd Ostroff’s set designs (originally for The Opera Company of Philadelphia) were stunning on the Merrill stage; tall arabic rococco looking columns which reconfigured to define the playing spaces. The most amazing aspect of the set was the brilliant floor design – a geometrically complex looking design that gave the illusion of a far greater space than is really there. Smashing. Also, the Act IV garden was mind boggling and Jeffrey Koger’s lighting really worked beautifully.” – G. Paul Padillo, Fanfaire.com, 8/2001
“Boyd Ostroff’s set was a marvelously flexible creation that struck a perfect balance between detail and simplicity, giving distinct sense of place to each scene” – Elaine Schmidt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/11/2013
“The image also crystallized director Candace Evans’ deep insight and consistent vision, which align with the graceful symmetry of Boyd Ostroff’s set. The set represents the Enlightened ideal of social structure, of beauty rising from order. It contrasts with the chaos – comic, in this case – that occurs when the high-born are rapacious and the low-born impertinent. The ideals are, of course, abstractions; the flesh and blood characters, who stand for all of us, inevitably fall short of them. The Florentine’s marvelous cast fully inhabited these characters and projected them into vast Uihlein Hall, to great comic and poignant effect. Mozart’s music, like Ostroff’s set, represents the ideal, and these singers, conductor Joseph Rescigno and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra lived up to it at every turn.” – Tom Strini, Urban Milwaukee, 5/11/2013
Design Evolution
Final Design Sketches
Production Photos
Construction Photos
Backstage Photos
Design and Technical Drawings
Production Staff (1999)
Director of Production and Technology: Boyd Ostroff • Production Manager: Matthew Koropeckyj-Cox • Props Coordinator: Cindy Felice • Lighting Coordinator: Mike Voytko • Stage Manager: Margo Maier • Asst Stage Managers: Maya Choldin, Lori Aghazarian • Asst to the Director: Marco Catena
Technical Director: John Callahan • Properties Master: Lou Petrucci • Master Electrician: Timothy Johnson • Flyman: Timothy Callahan • Asst Electrician: William Hennessey
Carpenters: John Callahan, Chris Hanes, Doug McBrearty, Frank Grasso, John Damiani, Matthew McIntyre, Michael Floody, Paul Lodes, Thomas Bowen, Timothy Callahan,
Scenic Artists: Vanessa Fenton (Charge), Jill Davis, Karen Tennant, Jonanna Dinella, Michael McCole, Sarah Baptist, Tamar Klausner
Properties Artists: Dunia Kravchak, Jennifer Goetner, Jennifer Haley, Kate Carbone
Scenery Data
- Built Sep-Nov, 1999 at the Opera Company of Philadelphia Production Center / Frankford Arsenal
- Scenery construction budget: $101,773 • Actual cost: $120,982 • Total rental income: $130,000 as of May 2011
- Load-in crew: 18 • Run Crew: 18 (carpenters, flymen and props only) • 10 hours required for load-in • 2 trucks required for shipping
- Sold to Austin Lyric Opera 2011. Currently owned by Florentine Opera
The Marriage of Figaro – revival
Opera Company of Philadelphia • May 5, 7, 10, 13, 19, 21, 2006
Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: Robert B. Driver • Lighting Design: Drew Billiau • Costume Design: Richard St. Clair • Hair and Makeup Design: Tom Watson • Choreographer: Heather Murphy-Monteith • Conductor: Corrado Rovaris
Figaro: Richard Bernstein • Susanna: Christine Brandes • Dr. Barolo: Kevin Glavin • Cherubino: Kirstin Chávez • Count Almaviva: Simone Alberghini • Countess Almaviva: Mary Dunleavy
Production Photos (2006)
Production Staff (2006)
Director of Design and Technology: Boyd Ostroff • Production Manager: Greg Prioleau • Props Coordinator: Cindy Felice • Lighting Coordinator: Drew Billiau • Production Stage Manager: Jennifer Hammontree • Asst Stage Managers: Hannah Stricklin, Valerie Clatworthy • Costume Director: Richard St. Clair • Asst Director: Johnathon Loy
Technical Director: John Callahan • Master Electrician: David Cecil • Properties Master: Paul Lodes • Asst Electrician: William Hennessey • Flyman: Timothy Callahan
Shop Carpenters: John Callahan, Paul Lodes, David McIntyre
Scenic Artists: Vanessa Fenton (charge), Hannah Price
Props Artists: Jonanna Dinella, Meredith Rapkin
The Marriage of Figaro on YouTube (videography by Boyd Ostroff for the Opera Company of Philadelphia)
Production History
Opera Company of Philadelphia • November 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 24, 1999 (premiere) • Scenic and Lighting Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: Robert B. Driver • Costume Design: Richard St. Clair • Conductor: Corrado Rovaris
Opera/Columbus • February 1, 2, 3, 2001 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff
Opera Birmingham • March 2, 4, 2001 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff
Portland Opera Repertory Theatre • July 26, 28, 30, 2001 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: Dona D. Valughn • Conductor: Hangen
Opera Grand Rapids • May, 2003 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff
Opera Memphis • January 31, February 3, 2004 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff
Knoxville Opera • April 16, 18, 2004 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff
Dayton Opera • October 23, 29, 31, 2004 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff
Greensboro Opera Company • November 4, 6, 2005 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff
Indianapolis Opera • March 10, 12, 2006 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: John Lloyd Davies • Lighting Design: Robert Zenoni • Costume Design: Susan Memmott-Alfred • Conductor: James Caraher
Opera Company of Philadelphia • May 5, 7, 10, 13, 19, 21, 2006 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: Robert B. Driver • Lighting Design: Drew Billiau • Costume Design: Richard St. Clair • Hair and Makeup Design: Tom Watson • Conductor: Corrado Rovaris
Florentine Opera • 2013 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: Candace Evans • Conductor: Joseph Rescigno
Tulsa Opera • 2013 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff
Austin Lyric Opera • January 31, February 2, 3, 2013 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: Kristine McIntyre • Conductor: Richard Buckley
Shreveport Opera • February, 2015 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff
Utah Opera • May 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 2016 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: Tara Faircloth • Conductor: Gary Thor Wedow
Opera Colorado • May 4, 7, 10, 12, 2019 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: Matthew Ozawa • Conductor: Ari Pelto
Florentine Opera • October 11, 13, 2019 • Scenic Design: Boyd Ostroff • Director: Shawna Lucey • Conductor: Clifton Smith