Composer John Musto
This week we’re workshopping the next Musto/Campbell opera. The Inspector will premiere next spring at The Barns, and we’re taking it apart and putting it back together stem-to-stern.
Today, meet Mayor Fazzobaldi [pronounced Fatso Baldy for those of you who don’t speak Italian:))
Baritone. 40s–50s. Short, corpulent, bombastic, bellicose, and bumbling, a man driven by his immense ego. He is a small town dictator, a role he has enjoyed for several decades. (description by librettist Mark Campbell)
Michael McGee workshops the Mayor (with "Directress of the Hospital and Cemetary" Sarah Larsen at left)
“Graft! Graft! It”s not graft! It’s not graft!
I have never committed graft!
And whoever made that charge
Is biased, evil and daft.
Those were honest gifts.
The villas and cars and such.
Given to me by my friends
Because I am loved so much!
Now see here, my good man,
What public servant doesn’t engage in
A bribe, some fraud, even a little graft?
We are grossly underpaid and understaffed!
I beg of you to have mercy on me!
I have a wife and daughter!
But as I am a man of God!
I did it
For the good of our people!”
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