Don Alfonso may very well have claimed "Così fan tutte! ("They're all like that!") when referring to the affections of a woman's heart, but he would have been wrong to use the phrase to describe the Boston Midsummer Opera's performance on August 7, 2009. Updating the setting to contemporary Connecticut and translating the lyrics into modern day English, the company delivered a fresh, fun and "ever-faithful" version of Mozart's comic opera.
The Plot of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte: How to Tell If Your Lover Will Cheat on You in Three Easy Steps
The tale opens with a heated tennis match, showing Dorabella paired with her lover Ferrando, and Fiordiligi paired with her beau Guglielmo. The two pairs have been visually mismatched for the audience, foreshadowing the mayhem to ensue. The boys are convinced that their girlfriends would never be unfaithful, but Don Alfonso tries to persuade them otherwise. "It's not really their fault," he concludes. After all, they're only human.
But the boys will have none of his friendly advice, persuaded that somehow they picked the only two superhuman beings on the planet. So Alfonso challenges them to a wager: if the boys will leave suddenly on the ruse that they have been called up to war and then return disguised as Albanian refugees, they will discover their sweethearts may very well be open to receiving romantic overtures from perfect strangers.
Putting Fiordiligi and Dorabella to the Test
Convinced of an easy win, the boys agree and the plan is carried out. At first, the girls display all the proper emotions their boyfriends want to see: shock and dismay when the boys leave; outrage and icy haughtiness when the boys return garbed with muddled accents and beatnik outfits.
But soon, that reserve begins to crack. Whether to keep things interesting or because no one wants to trick his own fiancée, the boys target not their own love, but the other. Ferrando implores Fiordiligi for her heart, while Guglielmo chases Dorabella. Being the younger sister, Dorabella isn't quite the same paragon of virtue that Fiordiligi claims to be and is the first to succumb to the wiles of these strangers. But even Fiordiligi eventually caves, during the soul-searching "Per pietà."
So how does this all end? Mozart doesn't really say. Some surmise that the lovers go back to their original pairings, and others say that the new standing sticks. The director Drew Minter chose the latter option and the lovers end the opera a bit less demanding, if not less confused.
The Singers: Megan Roth, Darren Anderson, David McFerran, Vira Slywotzky, Sara Heaton, Eric Downes
Megan Roth (Dorabella), Darren Anderson (Ferrando) and David McFerran (Guglielmo) each performed outstanding arias, but it was Vira Slywotzky (Fiordiligi) who delivered a truly "rock solid" performance with "Como scoglio." She proclaims, "Like the rock of Gibraltar, I will never falter." Sara Heaton, as the sharp-witted maid Despina, kept the audience entertained with her snappy complaints. And Eric Downes had just the right rumbly bass-baritone to make a body truly forget anything else on stage.
High Points: Da Ponte's Libretto Translated to English and the Small Venue Size
Having Da Ponte's libretto translated into English also helped keep the audience engaged, allowing it to laugh on cue rather than 30 seconds late because it was still reading subtitles. The small size of Boston University's Tsai Performance Center also meant that there was scarcely a bad seat in the house and kept the audience close enough to feel the energy on stage.
A Modern Adaptation of Mozart
The only downside to this adaptation was an oddity that often plagues modernizations: a director transforms the set, the costumes and the language, but leaves the character's names untouched.
So there is a Don Alfonso in a tracksuit hobnobbing with the college set in Connecticut while a boyishly American Ferrando laments the infidelities of his Dorabella. Unfortunately, such anachronisms nudged the suspension of disbelief more than a few times.
But Mozart is about great singing and the Boston Midsummer Opera delivered just that. Bravo!
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