Jeune Lune performs a Mozart marriage

Jennifer Baldwin Peden and Momoko Tanno
Jennifer Baldwin Peden, left, and Momoko Tanno in MPR's Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, singing music from "Don Juan Giovanni," one of Theatre de la Jeune Lune's two current productions.
MPR Photo/Karl Gehrke

In its current productions, the adventurous Minneapolis company Theatre de la Jeune Lune uses operatic music by Mozart to tell subversive stories with a political point of view.

"Figaro" takes the original Pierre Beaumarchais characters Mozart used in "The Marriage of Figaro" for a new perspective on the insanity that unfolded on the eve of the French Revolution.

In "Don Juan Giovanni" Jeune Lune fuses the Moliere play "Don Juan" with Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" to create an irreverent road trip.

Although the stories are different, the productions maintain the integrity of Mozart's music. To demonstrate, the cast's singers stopped by Minnesota Public Radio's Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio to perform Mozart and talk with host John Birge.

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