Remember the 1980s comedy "Roxanne" starring Steve Martin as a writer with a really big nose who couldn't get the girl, but helped his friends woo ladies from behind the scenes?
You may not know it's based loosely on a real man, a French author in the 1600s named Cyrano De Bergerac, who also inspired a play and an opera.
"Cyrano" opens at the Detroit Opera House in May.
David DiChiera, the founder and artistic director of the Michigan Opera Theatre, is retiring after 46 years. Closing out his final season is an opera he composed, "Cyrano" and today a significant part of "Cyrano" began to take shape.
Admired for his skills with a sword and his way with words, it's Cyrano De Bergerac's NOSE that everyone remembers.
Which is why the man portraying him, John Viscardi is getting a nose job. Today he went under the plaster
It's a timed process during which this baritone, for whom singing and acting is a way of life, had to remain completely silent - all while his entire face from forehead to chin was covered and dripping with a mold making substance called alginate.
Just breathing under all that is an art form.
Racing against a 7 minute clock to cover the alginate with strips of plaster gauze before the liquid substance becomes a solid, the prosethic artists creating the nose demanded silence and anonymity to give undivided attention to building an unblemished mold from which to birth the un-credited star of the Michigan Opera Theatre show - Cyrano's nose.
Any momentary unpleasantness for the opera star, is worth it. Viscardi says he's been preparing for the chance to perform the role of Cyrano for years.
"Cyrano" opens May 13th and closes May 21st. There are just 4 shows.
You can find more info at Michiganopera.org.
