James Karas
Conductor Louis Langrée
Director Christophe Honoré
Set Designer Alban Ho Van
Costumes Thibault Vancraenenbroeck
Lighting Dominique Bruguière
Fiordiligi Lenneke Ruiten
Dorabella Kate Lindsey
Despina Sandrine Piau
Ferrando Joel Prieto
Guglielmo Nahuel di Pierro
Don Alfonso Rod Gilfry
Chrous Cape Town Opera Chorus
Orchestra Freiburger Barockorchester
*** (out of 5)
The performance finished at about
1:10 in the morning and at 3 hours and 40 minutes that is approaching Wagnerian
duration. The singers, the chorus, the conductor and the orchestra all received
enthusiastic ovations. The director and the creative team walked on the stage and
were greeted with resounding and extended boos.
We were watching Mozart’s
delightful Cosi Fan Tutte, the opening production of the 68th edition
of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in that beautiful medieval city.
Opera directors in general and
European ones in particular have for some years now been pushing the envelope
as it were in producing classic works in most unlikely versions. Wagner’s Ring
in a gas station, Rigoletto in Las Vegas, Zaide in a third-world sweatshop, The
Abduction from the Seraglio set among the jihadists and ISIS are just
a few examples that come to mind.
A scene from Cosi fan Tutte?
As the curtain opens we are ready
for a new production of Cosi directed by Christophe Honoré,
known better as a writer and film director and fairly new to opera. But instead
of hearing the lilting and uplifting overture played by the Freiburger
Barockorchester under Louis Langre we listen to some strange song played on an
old turntable. There is a rundown building and a fire burning in a cutoff
barrel. We see a couple of white men milling around and abusing a couple of black women. Abusing consists of
manhandling, grabbing and in one instance pulling the woman to the side and
…well, was she just sitting on his lap or was she being quietly raped?
The setting is a colonial village
somewhere in Africa. The soldiers wear fezes but the natives are black so you
can decide where we are. The only way to treat the natives, especially the
women, is by pushing, grabbing them by the hair, shoving them to the side or
hitting them. None of the colonial overlords need mistake them for people.
Without putting too fine of a point on it, the locale is a slum.
Oh yes, Mozart’s opera. To jog
your memory, Ferrando and Guglielmo who are not black, live in that village and
are madly in love with the sisters Dorabella and Fiordiligi and swear that
their loves could never be unfaithful to them. Their older and wiser friend Don
Alphonso is willing to bet that, yes, they can and will be unfaithful because cosi fan tutte, all women are like that.
Dorabella and Fiordiligi at home?
The ruse is to send the men off
to war and have two Albanians (Guglielmo and Ferrando in disguise) visit and
successfully court the ladies. Don Alphonso is assisted in his plot by the
clever and lovable servant Dorabella.
Back to the slum, please. The
question is: what is the relationship between Mozart’s music, Lorenzo da
Ponte’s libretto, the social stratum in which the story takes place and a slum
in colonial Africa? Can the two be made to coexist? Can you superimpose a foreign
culture of cruelty, abuse, inhuman treatment of natives on an opera that deals
with love, humour and some silly game-playing by people who have not much else
to do?
If Honoré wanted to draw
attention to himself, he has certainly succeeded. Many reviews may be similar
to mine and talk mostly about him. Did I mention the wonderful singing? Soprano
Lenneke Ruiten as Fiordiligi and mezzo soprano Kate Lindsey as Dorabella are
lithe young singers with supple voices and physical agility. They would have
delighted us if only they had not moved to the slums and adopted the dress code
and some of the manners of that world. They have servants including the white Despina
of Sandrine Piau who usually enchants us. Again her singing and acting are
superb but what is she doing in that milieu?
Guglielmo and Ferrando are transformed
into unrecognizable Albanians by making the black. Bass di Pierro as Guglielmo
and tenor Prieto as Ferrando were youthfully arrogant and emotional as becomes
lovers and vocally expressive as Mozartian singers should be. Don’t worry about
the black make-up. Gilfry as Don Alfonso missed a couple of beats but he straightened
out and joined the crowd in bad manners but good singing.
Conductor Louis Langrée and the
Freiburger Barockorchester stuck with Mozart and they were a delight to hear.
__________
Cosi Fan Tutte
continues
at
the Théâtre de l'Archevêché until July 19, 2016 in
Aix-en-Provence, France. http://festival-aix.com/
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