Brief Notes
WA Mozart: Cosi fan tutte, Glyndebourne, 27 July 2006
It was not without trepidation that we booked seats for Glyndebourne’s new, anniversary, production of Cosi fan Tutte, in view of their recent record of productions of the da Ponte operas. In the event, reviews varied from lukewarm, for the production, to glowing for the music. They at least reassured us that nothing outrageous was to be expected and this turned out to be the case. Nicholas Hytner has produced a somewhat old-fashioned staging, under-stated but not at all boring..
The problem with Cosi, as has been said before, is how to balance the cynical story of the challenge devised by Don Alfonso for Ferrando and Guglielmo, disguised as Albanians, of wooing the other’s girl-friend, with the deep emotions stirred in the girls Dorabella and Fiordiligi. (Did I not know that in Mozart’s time, Albanians had a reputation for their sexual prowess? Anthony Freud, Director of WNO, once asked me, in attempting to defend his lapse of judgement in engaging Calixto Beito to direct his Company’s production of the opera.) Hytner’s solution is interesting. He treats the opera almost as opera seria; there is a sharp distinction is made between the recitative, telling the story and the arias revealing the characters’ feelings. Thus the great solos are delivered almost as concert arias, detached from the recitative. But Cosi is not Idomeneo and the two elements should be much more closely integrated into a musical unity.
Musically the performance was agreeable, if not electrifying. There was a certain blandness in a failure to establish the distinction in character of the two sisters and their boy-friends and in the lack of vocal contrast between them and Don Alfonso and Despina. The only singer really to grab the attention was Miah Parsson, Fiordiligi, particularly in her second act aria. In the other main roles were Anke Vondung as Dorabella, Topi Lehtipu (Fernando) and Luca Pisaroni (Guglielmo).Disappointing were Nicolas Rivenq as Don Alfonso and Ainhoa Garmendia, Despina, who lacked the character-acting ability demanded by their roles. (Rivenq could have learnt from Christopher Watson’s puppet master interpretation in last year’s The Anonymous Singers’ production in Holywell Music Room: Oxford Magazine No. 245)
(‘Yes, but Mozart chose not to make this explicit in his opera’ was my reply to Freud.)
WA Mozart: Cosi fan tutte, Glyndebourne, 27 July 2006
It was not without trepidation that we booked seats for Glyndebourne’s new, anniversary, production of Cosi fan Tutte, in view of their recent record of productions of the da Ponte operas. In the event, reviews varied from lukewarm, for the production, to glowing for the music. They at least reassured us that nothing outrageous was to be expected and this turned out to be the case. Nicholas Hytner has produced a somewhat old-fashioned staging, under-stated but not at all boring..
The problem with Cosi, as has been said before, is how to balance the cynical story of the challenge devised by Don Alfonso for Ferrando and Guglielmo, disguised as Albanians, of wooing the other’s girl-friend, with the deep emotions stirred in the girls Dorabella and Fiordiligi. (Did I not know that in Mozart’s time, Albanians had a reputation for their sexual prowess? Anthony Freud, Director of WNO, once asked me, in attempting to defend his lapse of judgement in engaging Calixto Beito to direct his Company’s production of the opera.) Hytner’s solution is interesting. He treats the opera almost as opera seria; there is a sharp distinction is made between the recitative, telling the story and the arias revealing the characters’ feelings. Thus the great solos are delivered almost as concert arias, detached from the recitative. But Cosi is not Idomeneo and the two elements should be much more closely integrated into a musical unity.
Musically the performance was agreeable, if not electrifying. There was a certain blandness in a failure to establish the distinction in character of the two sisters and their boy-friends and in the lack of vocal contrast between them and Don Alfonso and Despina. The only singer really to grab the attention was Miah Parsson, Fiordiligi, particularly in her second act aria. In the other main roles were Anke Vondung as Dorabella, Topi Lehtipu (Fernando) and Luca Pisaroni (Guglielmo).Disappointing were Nicolas Rivenq as Don Alfonso and Ainhoa Garmendia, Despina, who lacked the character-acting ability demanded by their roles. (Rivenq could have learnt from Christopher Watson’s puppet master interpretation in last year’s The Anonymous Singers’ production in Holywell Music Room: Oxford Magazine No. 245)
(‘Yes, but Mozart chose not to make this explicit in his opera’ was my reply to Freud.)