Italian Girl in Algiers
"As if Gioachino Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers weren't amusing enough in its own right, West Bay Opera adds to the fun with a production imaginatively staged by Yefim Maizel. Maizel...sets the story in the 1920s and interprets it as a "tongue-in-cheek adventure story". Hence, the fun begins with the overture... A young man sits at an old manual typewriter on the left side of the stage and types a title that is projected onto exotic-looking stage curtain - 'Harem Nights'." "After a couple of false starts based on misquoted famous first lines, such as "It was a dark and stormy day", he comes up with the words that set the mood as harem women step out and engulf him in their collective embrace... Such delightful direction...continue throughout the production... most enjoyable performance…" Judy Richter - The Richter Scale
Proper Disrespect
"Under stage director Yefim Maizel, the West Bay cast is like a comedy farm, allowing no joke to pass without full milking… Rossini would have loved it." Michael J. Vaughn - Palo Alto Weekly
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"The acting in West Bay Opera’s visually delectable production of ‘Italian Girl in Algiers’ is so engaging… Frothy and funny, it perfectly captures Rossini’s comic genius in the befuddled relationships and culture clash. …West Bay opera has maximized its assets in its formidable troupe of comedic actors and turned this piece into a charming farce… Clever staging touches abound… The capture of the Italian’s dirigible has an Indiana Jones feel about it as the pirates converge with drawn cutlasses upon the ‘20s damsels in cloche hats and flapper gowns… Don’t miss it."
Pamela Fisher - The Independent
West Bay Opera's ‘ITALIAN GIRL’ Full of Pun
"With Russian-born Yefim Maizel’s stage direction, West Bay’s production translates into a fast-paced, farcical romp…" Cheryl North - San Mateo County Times
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