Where's a Eunuch When You Need One?

So I'm just back from The Marriage of Figaro. How was it? Well, the strings were too slow and the singers were too fast and everyone else was out of time. The undersized orchestra was crammed up in one corner of the room, not in front of the stage but to one corner of the stage. They began by untuning their instruments and then launching into a rapid series of dischords.
But they did still manage to have many moments of concord and harmony, and for a local orchestra they did a fair rendition of this classic Mozart piece. And the singers generally did a very good job managing at all times to stay in tune and in time, except for the times that they didn't.
The opera, originally set in enlightenment Italy, had been translated and transposed to outback Australia, with some weird references to the stolen generation and the first world war thrown in just to make it all the more meaningful. The most interesting character was Charlie (originally Cherubino) played by a woman (originally the part was played by a eunuchised man). It was obvious from the moment she came on to the moment she left stage, and the femininity probably helped at times, since the part had a lot of cross-dressing in it. Still, it would have been nice to see the part played by a eunuch - maybe it's time the local Catholic church revived the tradition of castrating choirboys before they hit puberty?
All in all, a fun time. Next time, perhaps Opera Hunter could tackle something more challenging - a modernist piece, say. Because it's easy in well-known classical pieces to tell when a musician hits a dischord, but in unpopular modernist music, the musicians can always blame the composer. (Though there's always the danger that they'll play concords by mistake).
And you probably shouldn't take this short review too seriously, either - there are a lot of skilled musicians in Newcastle, enough to put on several big musical productions a year. Next time you're in Newcastle, chances are you'll be able to go along to one of them.