By Megan
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MFdnPptcSw
Available until: 7th
February 2021
Scottish Opera’s production of Cosi
fan tutte is really lighthearted and fun but it does take the story
seriously and shows the characters as real people. The title is usually
translated as ‘So do all women’ but this production seems to focus on the fact
that everyone makes mistakes. So it’s like Cosi fan tutti. ‘Tutti’ means
all males but it’s also used for a mixture of men and women.
Roxana Haines is the director and I really like the feel she has given this production. It feels really gentle and lovely and more about accepting people as they are than making judgements. Stuart Stratford conducts the Orchestra of Scottish Opera and Chorus and the way the music is played really contributes to the gentle feel of the opera.
The production is filmed as live under
social distancing guidelines. The characters do social distance but it doesn’t
seem odd at all, even in the moments when the characters usually touch and
exchange gifts. I think the important thing about the scenes where they
exchange gifts is what is symbolises so if it’s done in a more metaphorical way
I don’t think that really affects the meaning at all. If you didn’t know the
opera, I think you’d still know what was going on.
Also if you’re on a big stage there
often is a bit of social distancing anyway so more of the stage is used and so
as many people as possible in the audience can see the characters. So it seems
natural for two people to be singing that they love each other without being
that close. But I think as well as that, we have been social distancing for nearly
a year now. I know not everyone does it but most people try. It’s become so
natural to us to social distance that it looks like normal life.
The cast are near the start of their
careers. Catriona Hewitson (Despina), Margo Arsane (Dorabella), Shengzhi Ren (Ferrando)
and Arthur Bruce (Guglielmo) are all Scottish Opera’s Emerging Artists for
2020-21. Charlie Drummond (Fiordiligi) was an Emerging Artist in 2019-20 and
Michael Mofidian (Don Alfonso), who was born in Glasgow, is on the Jette Parker
Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House.
You can obviously tell they are young
singers if you look at them but they give really mature performances vocally. Cosi
fan tutte has some very difficult arias but the singers sing them really
well with really lovely phrasing. They also act the characters really well and
I especially like how they show the difference between Fiordiligi and
Dorabella. Ms Drummond plays Fiordiligi as someone who feels things very deeply
but she doesn’t make a big thing about it in public. Her performance is very
moving and even though her arias are still big showpieces they have a real
emotional meaning too.
Ms Arsane shows Dorabella’s emotions
in a much more obvious way but even though it could be funny there is something
quite sad about it too. But no matter how upset Dorabella is, Ms Arsane’s voice
is always beautiful. Mr Ren is a really romantic Ferrando and he sings his
arias beautifully. Mr Bruce makes Guglielmo a more confident character and he’s
very smooth vocally and in his personality but he isn’t as arrogant as some
Guglielmos so he is more likeable.
The biggest surprise for me is Don
Alfonso. Mr Mofidian isn’t the first young Don Alfonso I have seen but even
when he’s played by a young singer, they usually try to make him look older.
He’s usually the older man who passes on his wisdom to the young men but in
this production they haven’t tried to make Mr Mofidian look old and I felt he
was the same age as the others. This Don Alfonso is much less likely to be
speaking from experience because he isn’t old enough to have lots of
experience. He also seems really fun and relaxed so he comes across as a young
man who is a bit silly and makes a bet for fun.
I think it works really well. The
older Don Alfonsos know what they are doing and they are doing something which
isn’t very kind. Mr Mofidian’s Don Alfonso is younger and probably has much
less idea of what he is doing and the trouble he could cause so I feel more
forgiving. Mr Mofidian also has a really beautiful voice. Don Alfonso doesn’t
have any proper arias but he has three little ariosos and he made them sound so
beautiful and so full of meaning and he is great in the ensembles too.
Despina can be quite similar to Don
Alfonso too in some ways. She is usually cleverer than her mistresses and she
knows more about men. But Catriona Hewitson’s Despina seems less knowing than
she usually is. She’s really sweet and funny and lovely and she has a really
gorgeous voice. She also does some ornamentation I haven’t heard before and
it’s really nice. I really liked her performance a lot. (But I wish Despina
wouldn’t do silly voices when she’s pretending to be other people. It’s not Ms
Hewitson’s fault because it’s what everyone does and at least she didn’t do it
as the doctor, just as the lawyer but I don’t think it makes it funnier and it
doesn’t sound very nice. I’d rather she sang in her normal voice. I do think
Fiordiligi and Dorabella are too worried about what is going on to notice. My
mum says no one really looks at servants and in murder mysteries they get away
with murder for quite a long time because most people don’t pay enough
attention to them to notice if they are doing something odd.)
This is a really good production and I
enjoyed it very much.
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