CCM OPERA SERIES PRESENTS
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto attributed to Giuseppe Petrosellini
Edited for the New Mozart Edition by Rudolph Angermüller and Dietrich Berke
Used by arrangement with European American Music Distributors Company, U.S. and Canadian agent for Bärenreiter-Verlag, publisher and copyright owner.
Oct. 31-Nov. 2, 2024, Patricia Corbett Theater
*CCM Student
La Finta Giardiniera will run 2 hours and 30 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission.
By Gary Thor Wedow, guest artist
Wolfgang Mozart and La Finta Giardiniera
This opera is one of my favorite operatic works, among my favorite works of Mozart, and indeed of all comedic operatic masterpieces. It is exuberantly youthful, genuinely humorous (with jokes as old as the pyramids) and it sees directly into the human heart with the MRI of Mozart’s musical probing — yes! it sees into your heart too; you’ll feel it tonight.
It may seem astounding that he wrote this when he was ‘only’ 18, but truth, he had already written around seven professionally produced operatic works, so he was already an operatic force. Although La Finta Giardiniera, I feel, is his first mature opera written in his voice. It is the prototype for his later great works, especially Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così. Though Finta is an opera buffa, it is the serious plaintive arias of Sandrina, the gardeness and the stunning last act reunion duet of the lovers that are among the real treasures of this garden with their rapturous melodies and emotional depth. Other staggering musical moments are the kaleidoscopic Act I and Act II finales, worthy of standing beside Mozart’s later masterpieces, where he sweeps us along with the action with vibrant, continually changing dramatic music.
What amazes and amuses me the most however is the young Mozart’s accurate renderings of these inflated personalities, still so familiar to us today. As a child, Mozart had been exhibited before the crowned heads and the elite of Europe and was well familiar with their preening and self-importance. He paints them hilariously, without shame, with his music, both the upper class and the servants who would soon rise to equality; these are people he knows intimately and within a few bars of his glorious music, we know them too, and despite their ridiculous behavior, we fall in love with them and their vain, foolish antics.
Finally, what the opera is about, and what obsessed Mozart constantly was love; in the final chorus, everyone sings: ‘Viva amore!’ Mozart never ceased being in love with his aptly named wife Constanze. After nine years of marriage, five months before his death he wrote to her: ‘My one wish is to settle my affairs so I can be with you again. You cannot imagine how I have been aching for you. I can’t describe what I have been feeling — a kind of longing that is never satisfied, which only increases daily. Even my work gives me no pleasure…’ Love.
So welcome to our garden, where love always blossoms anew, and we can always hope to find true love renewed or found for the very first time.
Gary Thor Wedow, October 25, 2024
Conductor Gary Thor Wedow has established an enviable reputation for dramatically exciting and historically informed performances. Opera News has hailed him for his “hot music making”, “convincingly elegant period style”, and “impassioned leadership”. Conducting a wide range of repertoire, he has had long associations with Seattle Opera (La Cenerentola, Le nozze di Figaro, Gluck’s Orphée, etc.), New York City Opera (Don Giovanni, Carmen, Telemann’s Orpheus, etc.), The Canadian Opera Company (the North American premier of Sartorio’s Giulio Cesare), and the Juilliard School where he is on the faculty and often leads performances of the operas and oratorios of Handel, Mozart, and Bach.
This summer he conducted Barbiere di Siviglia for Des Moines Metro Opera which was lauded by Opera Today as “The Best. Barber. Ever!”, last season included Don Pasquale for Opera Omaha, L’incoronazione di Poppea for the Shepherd School and a new production of Carmen in Spanish for Opera Southwest. He was Artistic Advisor for Portland Baroque Orchestra for the 21-22 season (leading performances of Mendelssohn, C.P.E. Bach and Zeltner) and was formerly the Associate Conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. His other recent early music performances have included Atalanta for the Juilliard School with Juilliard 415, Rameau’s Platée for Des Moines Metro Opera, Giulio Cesare (Handel) for the Atlanta Opera, and L’incoronazione di Poppea for Cincinnati Opera featuring countertenors Anthony Roth Constanzo and Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen.
A regular guest of Utah Opera, he has led their productions of The Pirates of Penzance, Le nozze di Figaro, Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Fledermaus and L’Entführung aus dem Serail.
This coming spring, he will conduct Le nozze di Figaro for Palm Beach Opera, and later this year Messiah for the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, a work he has frequently led for the New York Philharmonic, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra among many other orchestras. Born in La Porte, Indiana and resident of New York City; Wedow studied piano with virtuoso Jorge Bolet at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University and received his Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory.
While taking a break at Lagonero Studios, two actors performing in the reality TV show, La Finta Giardiniera, have a misunderstanding over how to represent the backstory of the opera the show is based on. By coincidence, that misunderstanding mirrors the backstory where Count Belfiore wounds his lover, the Marchioness Violante Onesti, and cowardly runs away, leaving her for dead. In a frenzy, the actress performing Sandrina, is attended to and returned to set just as filming begins. So begins the reality TV period drama, where the cast desperately tries to find their true love among the many obstacles placed in front of them.
On the set of the Podestà’s verdant estate, we find our contestants pursuing their earnest desire for connection.
Our Contestants:
^ Performs Friday, Nov. 1
+ Performs Thursday, Oct. 31 and Saturday, Nov. 2
Gary Thor Wedow, guest conductor
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October 21, 2025
Light shapes how we see, feel and connect. That message is at the heart of CCM Lighting Design and Technology alumnus Sean Savoie's recent TEDxStLouis talk, "A Well-Placed Light." The presentation is available to watch on the Tedx Talk YouTube channel.
October 20, 2025
The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music presents six new works in Transmigration 2025 at 7 p.m. on Oct. 28-30 at CCM Village. Tickets are FREE, but reservations through the CCM Box Office are encouraged.
Event: October 23, 2025 1:54 PM
UC College-Conservatory of Music's 2025-26 theatre season continues with "The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical", playing Oct. 23-25, 2025 in Patricia Corbett Theater. Tickets are on sale now through the CCM Box Office.
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The competitive scholarships CCMpower provides help attract and retain the best and brightest students, nurture professional development opportunities and – in turn – continue CCM’s tradition of excellence for the next generation of student-artists. Join or renew your CCMpower membership today to help provide critical scholarship funds.
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Sponsors listed as of August 15, 2025
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CCM's faculty and staff and its state-of-the-art facilities make possible the professional training and exceptional education on which CCM believes the future of the arts relies. The school's roster of eminent faculty regularly receives distinguished honors for creative and scholarly work, and its alumni have achieved notable success in the performing and media arts. More than 150 internationally recognized faculty members work with students from around the world, specializing in eight areas of study.
Performance dates and repertoire are subject to change. View CCM's current calendar of events.
The purpose of these performances is educational, and they are part of a University of Cincinnati academic program.
