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| | Theater News - Tunes, Tomes, & Videos: Benvenuto, Cellini! - |
 | | The opening, an 18-minute mini-opera wherein Cellini's planned execution in Florence's public square is halted by a pardon (shades of The Threepenny Opera), is expertly assembled and prodigiously rhymed: "Florence" alone is hooked with "warrants," "torrents," and "abhorrence." But, right away, something's amiss. |
 | | Cellini is pardoned, the street vendors hawking "souvenirs of the hanging of Cellini" change their spiel to "souvenirs of the pardon of Cellini," and the story lurches forward. |
 | | Cellini and Angela share a lovely waltz, "You're Far Too Near Me" (with some ingenious internal rhymes), but it sounds more sincere than this bounder of a hero deserves. |
| www.theatermania.com /content/news.cfm?int_news_id=4512 (1158 words) |
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