Review: Così fan tutte"Cosi fan tutte: New Jersey Opera Theater kicks off its season with Mozart's masterpiece"Princeton Packet (Stuart Duncan) Mozart wrote Cosi fan tutte in 1790, but for a century and a half the work did not find worldwide acceptance, despite its obvious sophistication and superior music. The problem, of course, was the plot — probably taken from the myth of Cephalus and Procris, textured by Ariosto and tinged by a court scandal in Mozart's day. Reduced to its core, the plot involves two sisters, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, who are engaged to a pair of suitors, Ferrando and Guglielmo. Each of the four happily swears fidelity, but an older, apparently wiser Don Alfonso tells the young men that "faithfulness in women is like the phoenix: everyone says it exists, but no one knows where." When the lads beg to differ, Don Alfonso backs up his claim with cash and a wager is made. Each must assume a disguise and make advances on the other's girl, and if the girls succumb within 24 hours, he wins the bet. It takes the better part of 150 minutes — all of act one and a good bit of act two — for the girls to give in. The other 30 minutes is used to clean up the mess. You should remember that the title, Cosi fan tutte, translates to "girls are like that" — and that the librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, preferred the alternate title, The School for Lovers. The 18th century, with its rationalism, accepted the fact that the two couples learn from their experiences and return wiser to their original lovers. The 19th century, with its romantic and then Victorian idealism, ignores the work almost entirely, or attempted to find other tales for Mozart's music. Beethoven thought the work immoral; Wagner thought it an aberration and a waste of genius. Post-Freudian 20th century audiences insisted that any sexual awakenings, such as the girls' experience in act two, would also change their outlooks completely, and some stagings today even pair the girls with their new lovers. But not the New Jersey Opera Theater, who is leading off the summer season at McCarter's Berlind Theatre with the masterpiece. They offer us the opera as written — lusty, but loving; voracious, but lined with velvet; comic, but passionate; and sometimes even deeply touching. Emily Newton and Fenna Ograjensek as the sisters sing magnificently, and are at their best in duets and trios. "Il Core vi dono" is beautifully sung. Fabián Robles and Jason Kaminski sing the suitors with great comic gusto. And Elisabeth Russ, as the wily maid Despina, steals scenes, especially when she dons disguises and pretends to be a doctor of medicine and, later, a notary. But the glue that holds the story together is Don Alfonso, and Matthew Curran wins our hearts, despite the fact that Don Alfonso clearly is cunning, sly and a cheat. You may remember Curran from last season's Falstaff. He comes from Princeton and has a voice that is confident and comes with a twinkle. A glorious evening for a start to a most ambitious schedule. And one wonders if we all should remember that Mozart was very much in love with one sister, but married the other. Return to the Reviews and Articles Archive.
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