Director: Gary Halvorson
Conductor: David Robertson
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6898908/
Cast:
Ben Bliss ... Ferrando, t
Amanda Majeski ... Fiordiligi, s
Serena Malfi ... Dorabella, ms
Christopher Maltman ... Don Alfonso, baritone
Kelli O'Hara ... Despina, s
Adam Plachetka ... Guglielmo, bass-baritone
First performed 1790.
Other performance watched recently:
Mozart: Così fan tutte (2006), 8
So I don't love the story: these men seduce their mates to the point of (sham) marriage. The ending is strange because they go back to their original partners; can they really trust each other hereafter? And if they were willing to marry the other, should they really return to their original partners? (Opportunity for sequel: spouse swapping?)
The 50's setting is colorful both in palette and with extra non-singing real Coney Isle performers: fire eater, snake charmer, sword swallower, bearded lady, little people, tall man, another that I can't even describe. And we get prop rides: swan boats for tunnel of love, merry-go-round horses, teacups, hot air balloon for 1, etc.
The wardrobe is strictly 50's, although the men could be from the 70's, especially their hair (one is not slicked enough).
I don't like the 50's milieu, because I'm currently watching movies from that era, and I don't like American society: very sexist and racially repressed, with teens rebelling already, yet that's part of the "realism". (Frankly, even the supposed desire for realism in film feels like part of the white male domination: no fantasies allowed for women and blacks, except ones that keep them repressed. Of course, this leads directly to the 60's erupting into multiple liberation movements.) When I watched the '06 performance, set in the 18th century, and far more suggestive that they did bed down, I wondered about birth control. Here in the 1950's, this feels like just another slice of misogyny. But, as I wrote in the synopsis, the libretto has everyone regretful, except Don Alfonso, who won the bet.
Metropolitan Opera, cond. Robertson; 7-
Mozart: Così fan tutte (2006), 8
So I don't love the story: these men seduce their mates to the point of (sham) marriage. The ending is strange because they go back to their original partners; can they really trust each other hereafter? And if they were willing to marry the other, should they really return to their original partners? (Opportunity for sequel: spouse swapping?)
The 50's setting is colorful both in palette and with extra non-singing real Coney Isle performers: fire eater, snake charmer, sword swallower, bearded lady, little people, tall man, another that I can't even describe. And we get prop rides: swan boats for tunnel of love, merry-go-round horses, teacups, hot air balloon for 1, etc.
The wardrobe is strictly 50's, although the men could be from the 70's, especially their hair (one is not slicked enough).
I don't like the 50's milieu, because I'm currently watching movies from that era, and I don't like American society: very sexist and racially repressed, with teens rebelling already, yet that's part of the "realism". (Frankly, even the supposed desire for realism in film feels like part of the white male domination: no fantasies allowed for women and blacks, except ones that keep them repressed. Of course, this leads directly to the 60's erupting into multiple liberation movements.) When I watched the '06 performance, set in the 18th century, and far more suggestive that they did bed down, I wondered about birth control. Here in the 1950's, this feels like just another slice of misogyny. But, as I wrote in the synopsis, the libretto has everyone regretful, except Don Alfonso, who won the bet.
Metropolitan Opera, cond. Robertson; 7-
