"The Poor Soldier"

A comic opera last performed in this area in Albany in 1809, "The Poor Soldier" opened tonight at Schenectady County Community College. Further performances are scheduled there on Saturday (Jan. 24) at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3. It's an entertaining show, a splendid production with a full and talented orchestra supplied by The Musicians of Ma'alwyck. The opera was a favorite of George Washington, which shows a pleasing broad-mindedness in him and the U.S. public, given that the hero (the poor soldier himself) and another major character are Irishmen who have recently returned from the American Revolution, where they were fighting with the British army. The notes do say that Bostonians rioted in 1797 because they sympathized with the Jacobins and objected to the farcical depiction of a French character in "The Poor Soldier," but Albany audiences were apparently more civilized. The SCCC box office number is 381-1467.