Così fan tutte at the Met

Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera

Even though it’s one of Mozart’s most popular operas, I’ve never really liked Così fan tutte—I have tried to see it twice before, and have never made it through the whole thing for sheer boredom over the contrived plot. To be fair to Così, both times were pretty substandard productions, one a regional opera company (when I bailed at intermission) and the other was at a music conservatory (when I jumped ship only part way through Act 1). So I came to this performance at the Met with reservations. I willed myself to go because I figured that it’s one of Mozart’s most beloved operas and perhaps I was just missing something. And on paper, this performance looked great: the cast and musical team were made up of people I love to hear, especially Miah Persson as Fiordiligi, who I’ve loved in Mozart since I heard her sing the Mozart Mass in C with the Los Angeles Philharmonic several years ago, and William Christie, whose conducting of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at BAM was just fabulous to hear. Plus, the Met was pushing this team as a youthful and sexy cast—can’t go wrong with that, right? (Well, you can, but that’s not related to this performance.)

In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed myself last Saturday night (Nov 27). The plot remains ridiculous to me: a silly farce where two men decide test whether, as their friend says, ‘all women are unfaithful’ by disguising themselves as foreigners and wooing the other’s girlfriend really hard. If any one of my “lovers” tried to pull that trick on me I would have slapped him really good. But I imagine one must suspend one's disbelief and allow that Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte wrote the thing long before the time of Girl Power®. Nevertheless, it was possible to sit there and just let Mozart’s beautiful music wash over. Sometimes, I just closed my eyes and listened to the music rather than actually observe the bizarre happenings. The score is filled with gorgeous arias, duets, trios, quintets, and more. All of them are exceedingly easy on the ear, and it was even more pleasurable given the stellar vocal performances rendered by the cast. Miah Persson’s voice was warm and enveloping, Pavol Bresslik (Ferrando) bright and clear. Danielle DeNeise was a ham on stage, a pleasure to watch, and William Christie’s conducting was brisk and crisp. The production was straightforward and didn’t take too many interpretive liberties. It just was what it was, but that allowed the music to stand on it’s own—and that was fine by me.