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USU Performs Mozart Classic

Devin Davis

Utah State University's opera theatre recently performed La Finta Giardiniera by Mozart. The performance is the first Italian piece performed with the USU symphony orchestra. The piece has the honor of being guest directed by Daniel Helfgot.

Daniel Helfgots credits include over 200 productions, over 100 opera's and operetta's from the baroque to the contemporary including several world premiers. With these credentials when Helfgot compliments USU's production La Finta Giardiera under the direction of Dallas Heaton he means it.

"When I came it was fabulously prepared by Dallas Heaton," Helfgot said. "I mean, it's really seldom where you go to a place where the performers, where the singers, where the students are this well prepared. And that paves the pass for a successful process."

Since opera is a marriage of both literature and music. Helfgot's assignment as guest director was to ensure that these two art forms come together smoothly. He also said La Fienta Giardiera provides an important backdrop to many of Mozart's later opera works.

"Here we get the chance to see a young guy," Helfgot said. "A young composer- I think he was 17 or 18 when he wrote this. Where you see the germ where all the later opera's come from. All his language is already there at this young age."

Helfgot said he's hopeful for the future of the arts.

"We have very dark clouds ahead of us," Helfgot said. "In terms of appropriation of moneys for education, for music, for all of these kinds of endeavors. All we can do is prove that without art, without musical education, without theater, without opera the world will be not necessarily a brighter place."