A scene from Cosi fan tutte at The Met Photo: 2020 Richard Termine/Met Opera
Sunday 5 April 2020 at 6pm on RNZ Concert
Metropolitan Opera Season: Così fan tutte
MOZART: Così fan tutte
Cast:
Nicole Car (Fiordiligi), Serena Malfi (Dorabella), Heidi Stober (Despina), Ben Bliss (Ferrando), Luca Pisaroni (Guglielmo), Gerald Finley (Don Alfonso), Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra conducted by Donald Palumbo
Recorded at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York (Met Opera)
A scene from Cosi fan tutte at The Met Photo: 2020 Richard Termine/Met Opera
Coney Island once again comes to the stage of the Met with the first revival of Phelim McDermott’s popular staging inspired by the side shows of the boardwalk.
The third and final collaboration between Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte is a fascinating paradox: a frothy comedy of manners with an intensely dark take on human nature; an old story (it has antecedents in Boccaccio, Shakespeare, and Cervantes, among others) with a startlingly modern tone; and a beautiful score depicting questionable behaviour.
'Così fan tutte' was only moderately successful at its première and remained just outside the standard repertoire for more than a century. 'Così' still poses unique challenges, and correspondingly unique rewards, for the public today. Every possible impression of love, from the loftiest to the basest, is explored in this extraordinary opera.
A scene from Cosi fan tutte at The Met Photo: 2020 Richard Termine/Met Opera
The music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) continues to enthrall audiences around the world. His achievements in opera, in terms of beauty, vocal challenge, and dramatic insight, remain unsurpassed. The extraordinary Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749–1838) led an adventurous life in Venice and Vienna. He supplied libretti for the prominent composers of his time, including Antonio Salieri, and collaborated with Mozart on his greatest operatic achievements, including 'Così fan tutte', 'Le Nozze di Figaro', and 'Don Giovanni'. Da Ponte migrated to America and eventually settled in New York, where he was granted the first Chair of Italian at Columbia College (now University).
A scene from Cosi fan tutte at The Met Photo: 2020 Richard Termine/Met Opera
The opera was originally set in Naples. With its natural beauty and abundant sunshine, the city became the equivalent of a tourist destination in the 18th century. It has been suggested that the preponderance of woodwinds in the score is meant to evoke the breezy atmosphere of the seashore. The Met's current production updates the action to an amusement park inspired by Coney Island in the 1950s.
A scene from Cosi fan tutte at The Met Photo: 2020 Richard Termine/Met Opera
The score of 'Così' is elegant and refined on its surface and dramatically insightful on closer inspection. It is often possible in this opera to tell who is siding with whom, and to what degree, in the various ensembles, whereas the characters’ individual development is apparent in the diversity of their solos. (Notes: Metropolitan Opera)
