Cosi from Salzburg

Joana Mallwitz: Conductor
Christof Loy: Director

Elsa Dreisig: Fiordiligi, soprano
Marianne Crebassa: Dorabella, mezzo
Andrè Schuen: Guglielmo, bass
Bogdan Volkov: Ferrando, tenor
Lea Desandre: Despina, soprano
Johannes Martin Kränzle: Don Alfonso, bass 

This year isn't just the Beethoven year, it is also 100 years of the Salzburg Festival.  They were determined not to just skip the whole thing like almost all the other festivals, so they reduced it as far as possible.  There are quite a few concerts but only two operas, down from 10.  We are concerning ourselves with Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.

This is a regie production which provides virtually no context.  We are in white rooms with no furniture.  The clothing is the usual modern black outfits, except for the guys.  They start out in the usual black suits, but when it's time for them show up in disguises, they are in the above outfits.  If you have no idea what goes on in this opera, you still won't.  They are supposed to be in disguise, but they would know who they are.  Obviously.  Despina's first act aria is cut.  In fact the whole performance is at least a half hour shorter than usual.  I notice that Dorabella has a tattoo on her ankle.  So these are modern children.  

In their funny outfits after the poison gag the guys woo the same girls they did at the beginning.  This is not how it's supposed to work.  They switch back and forth.  Hmmm.  These guys are not in disguise.  They are just messing with them.  The girls get pissed and the boys split.
This production seems to have its own plot.  The guys are back in their dark suits way before they usually are.  I don't think I like any of these people.

But the music is gorgeous.  The soprano ornaments her arias.  Have I ever heard this kind of ornamentation in Mozart before?  I don't think so.  The tenor is also lovely.

No one is fooled at any point.  They end up in the beginning arrangement, but it could have gone either way.  I still want a trick ending.

Cosi with Cecilia

Conductor...............James Levine
Production..............Lesley Koenig

Fiordiligi..............Carol Vaness
Ferrando...............Jerry Hadley
Dorabella..............Susanne Mentzer
Guglielmo.............Dwayne Croft
Despina.................Cecilia Bartoli
Don Alfonso..........Thomas Allen

In 1996 I recorded Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with Cecilia Bartoli in her Met debut as Despina when it came on public television, but my son taped over it.  This quarrel came near the beginning of my wild infatuation with La Bartoli.  I decided to keep him anyway.  So this year he gave me a year of Met on Demand making this my first opportunity to watch it after all these years.

This production ran at the Met until very recently. It is visually inert, but this means nothing when Cecilia is on the stage.  Her face alone is filled with liveliness.  She is constantly in motion. I do rather like the men's disguises.

Cecilia does recitative like no one else.  I wish very much that her Met career had been longer.  Her wonderful theatrical magnetism dominates every scene she is in, though this role doesn't show off the coloratura she has become famous for.  As a doctor she wears a large red nose.

Musically it's rather blah as well.  These are all good singers, so more could have been expected.  In those days Levine was the only conductor we saw.  He doesn't find anything interesting in this score.

Towards the end Cecilia is in her notary disguise with giant eyebrows and a giant mustache, far more spectacular than those worn by our Albanians.  She provides what life there is in the production, but I would recommend it for this alone.  At the end our Despina realizes that she has been used and throws down the money Don Alfonso has given her.

This comic masterpiece has to be the most unusual Met debut by an already wildly famous singer ever.

Cecilia before the Met

This is 1990 in Italy.

Fabulous Cosi in HD

Full cast

👍🏻
Conductor...............David Robertson
Production..............Phelim McDermott

Fiordiligi..............Amanda Majeski
Guglielmo............Adam Plachetka 
Dorabella..............Serena Malfi
Ferrando................Ben Bliss
Despina.................Kelli O'Hara
Don Alfonso.........Christopher Maltman

Two words:  saddle oxfords.  The sisters in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte in HD from the Metropolitan Opera are on the right in outfits which were popular when I was in junior high school.  They look so fabulously authentic.  They are in a motel and Despina is the woman who cleans the rooms.

These two guys, Ferrando and Guglielmo, are in a bar with Don Alfonso, their older male friend. When they are just a bit too drunk, the younger men start to brag about the faithfulness of their fiancés, the two sisters Dorabella and Fiordiligi.  According to the guys, they are truly faithful. Don Alfonso says this is nonsense, that all women are fickle. He bets that their girlfriends are like all the others, and he will prove it. The two guys agree to test this. The two guys first appear in their naval officer uniforms, a touch that for me made all the difference.  These two young men might indeed be suddenly called off to war.

This production completely transformed my take on this opera.  It is important to remember that it is the young men's complete faith in their girl friends that makes any of this plausible.  In their military uniforms they obviously feel their young fiancés are too insignificant to jilt such important people as themselves.  They never seem to consider they might lose.  They do whatever Don Alfonso tells them and laugh at the results until it's too late.

My favorite thing about the production is the disguises, especially the mustacchi (mustaches) which make the young men look far more gorgeous than their stuffy military officer real selves.  Ferrando is completely transformed.  The disguises are always lame.

The circus performers were fun if sometimes a little overwhelming.  In the green outfit seen above is our Despina as the notary who brings the marriage certificates all the way from Texas.  This was the most fun of all with her Broadway dance number.  The entire production was complex and busy with virtually a set for each aria.  It made the whole thing a lot funnier.  It's a comedy.  We should laugh.

In the end Don Alfonso makes his case, but he realizes that Despina has done all the real work and gives her all the winnings.  New motto for Cosi fan Tutte:  Don't take your woman for granted.  My favorite Cosi ever.

Cosi in HD

Conductor:  James Levine
Production:  Lesley Koenig

Ferrando:  Matthew Polenzani (tenor)
Guglielmo:  Rodion Pogossov (bass)
Don Alfonso:  Maurizio Muraro (bass)
Fiordiligi:  Susanna Phillips (soprano)
Dorabella:  Isabel Leonard (mezzo-soprano)
Despina:  Danielle de Niese (soprano)

Because I was tired from my trip to San Francisco, I didn't make it to the end of Cosi fan tutte in HD on Saturday.  Perhaps I will try again on Wednesday.  For some reason not known to me the Metropolitan Opera is transmitting two repeats of Cecilia Bartoli productions in a row.  She is something of a significant figure in my life, so I could not help feeling her ghost lurking in the wings.  Also this is my third Cosi in the last year.  I left shortly after a lovely "Soave al vento."

As an advertisement for La Cenerentola, a film of Joyce DiDonato played with her singing "Una voce poco fa."  I had to go out during the original broadcast of this aria, so I was pleased to see it.

None of these performers actually reminded me of Cecilia.  Danielle de Niese created her own personal version of Despina which did not summon images of her predecessor in the role. Actually no one ever reminds me of Cecilia, so I should just relax and enjoy it.  Danielle is the correct Fach for Despina. 

In Cecilia's performance she carried the entire show.  Everyone else on the stage was virtually inert.  That was certainly not the case this time.  This is a terrific, well-balanced and lively cast of wonderful singing actors.  I have to come back to see how it ends.  There are never spoilers for Cosi.  Each production invents a new ending.

I went again and made it to the intermission.  I wanted to see the poison scene.  For her magnet Despina uses pruning shears.  It made me want to see the original again.

My Cosi

I was telling one of the members of my Salzburg tour group that I never go to Butterfly, that Patricia Racette's famous portrayal of it is something that I always pass up.  I just hate Butterfly.  She then told me that she feels exactly the same about Cosi fan tutte, that she never goes to it and can't explain why she is now.  I agreed.  It's a horrible opera.  Not one funny thing goes on in it.

I would promise I would love Cosi only if it were staged like this:

There must not be even so much as one beat between when the two assholes appear in their so-called disguises and the girls recognize them.  The sisters must know for every second of what remains of the opera that this is their boy friends playing a cruel and stupid joke on them.  When they turn to the other guy it is because they have finally let go of their illusions and are willing to play their own reverse joke.

No one must guess this except the audience.  At the end they fire Despina and dump these two losers.  I promise I would laugh all the way through.

Cosi from Salzburg

CAST

Fiordiligi:  Malin Hartelius,
Dorabella:  Marie-Claude Chappuis,
Despina:  Martina Janková,
Ferrando:  Martin Mitterrutzner,
Guglielmo:  Luca Pisaroni,
Don Alfonso:  Gerald Finley,

Perhaps it was too soon for me to see another Cosi fan tutte. I think if you get enough opera lovers together, everything will find someone to dislikes it. We used to say "Gesmacksache!"

So I will just tell the things I liked. The Despina of Martina Jankova was fresh and entertaining. I don't know why I never noticed this before, but Don Alfonso only wins because he cheats by persuading Despina to do all the work for him.

The set was a giant spa with a bath in the center and palm trees all around. In the second act the bath is covered and the palms move outside. This was a very conservative production, but still someone wanted to know "Why?"

Both of our baritones, Luca Pisaroni as Guglielmo and Gerald Finley as Don Alfonso, were excellent. Christoph Eschenbach conducted some outstanding ensembles, the key to a successful Cosi.

Our audience was very pleased, with sustained rhythmic clapping that went on for a long time.

The disguises were lame, as usual.  This time Ferrando gets Fiordiligi and Guglielmo rejects Dorabella, the consolation prize.   Don Alfonzo drinks poison and dies.  There's a lot to be explained here.  How about Fiordiligi goes to Ferrando and Guglielmo stabs him? Wouldn't that make more sense?

I bought a program for Cosi and it lists the casts of every performance of Cosi at the Salzburg Festival. It makes for some fascinating reading.

Cosi fan tutte

Doctor Despina

Fiordiligi:  Ellie Dehn
Dorabella:  Christel Lötzsch *
Despina:  Susannah Biller
Ferrando:  Francesco Demuro
Guglielmo:  Philippe Sly *
Don Alfonso:  Marco Vinco

Conductor:  Nicola Luisotti
Production:  John Cox

Oh how we wish they were all like that.  We are speaking of the San Francisco Opera's current production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.  Things we wish were always this good:

1.  The maestro.  Nicola Luisotti may be my favorite by now.  Such wonderful musical ensemble for a Mozart opera can only trace back to the maestro.  Phrasing that just wouldn't quit.  Ensemble singing.  Ensemble playing.  More, please.

2.  Theorbo.  Just kidding.  We don't always need to see a theorbo in Mozart.  For my son--the continuo was 2 harpsichords, cello and theorbo.  Dr. Gossett once informed me that figured bass continued into his period, something I had not known.  In Rossini, and maybe possibly Mozart, it should really be a piano.

3.  The very flashy Despina of Susannah Biller.  This is my fourth encounter with Ms Biller, including her very professional outing as Daisy in The Great Gatsby and her Nanetta in Falstaff in Portland.  She showed very dynamic singing and looked adorable as the notary.

4.  Guys who actually looked like they were sufficiently in disguise not to be recognized.  This was a first.

5.  Guys who were still cute in and out of their disguises.

6.  Sisters who harmonized like they really were sisters.

7.  Gorgeous sets and costumes.

There must be something I didn't like.  There was one gorgeous number after another--the only real excuse for presenting this opera.  But in the end the guys choose war over love.

As we left the theater, the War Memorial and City Hall were lit up in rainbow colors to celebrate the Supreme Court decisions.