Portland Opera's 'Cosi Fan Tutte' offers light-heartedness to an often heavy genre
By Jessie Hethcoat
"Are they flesh and bone, or are they angels?" Ferrando and Guglielmo ask of their lovers, two sisters named Dorabella and Fiordiligi. An opera addressing the complexities of love, fidelity and gender, Portland Opera's latest production, "Cosi Fan Tutte," premieres tomorrow, Feb. 5.
"Cosi Fan Tutte" is an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This particular opera is lighter than most others, without death or tragedy. The music itself is indicative of this lightness, having a particularly airy and wistful feel.
In the opera, two sisters, Fiordiligi played by soprano Lauren Skuce and Dorabella played by mezzo-soprano Angelina Niederloh, are engaged to two men named Guglielmo, played by baritone Keith Phares, and Ferrando, played by tenor Ryan McPherson.
A friend of the men, Don Alfonso, played by baritone Robert Orth, bets that he can get their sweethearts to fall in love with someone else. Eventually, the men leave and come back disguised as dashing "Albanians" and attempt to court each other's fiancées.
Both Skuce and Niederloh did fantastic jobs of playing the tongue-in-cheek, slightly updated versions of the two sisters. While Niederloh shined in her humorous scenes, Skuce's heartbreak and guilt were penetratingly authentic.
Phares and McPherson are proof that opera can bring not just chuckles, but real, bona fide laughter to a theater. When they come on stage dressed as the "dashing" Albanians, they sport gaudy, ostentatious clothing but, most notably, some fantastically awful moustaches.
"Our moustaches are triumphs of masculinity," they sing, "and plumes of love."
Orth's performace was incredible. From the first moment of the opera, when he is the first to walk out in the stage, he has an evil gleam in his eye that automatically tilts the head of the viewer. Soprano Christine Brandes, who plays Despina, was also a standout performer.
Her role as the calculating, slightly crude and very hilarious maid of the sisters brought some of the best comical scenes of the play. She, along with the Phares and McPherson, were allowed many chances to showcase their "bad acting" skills while fooling the sisters.
"It's a great opera for people to see and discuss," Production Stage Manager Jennifer Hammontree said. "I also think it's hard not to like Mozart. It's one of my favorites."
Literally translated, Cosi fan tutte means "Women are all like that." This, as manager of outreach and education for the Portland Opera, Alexis Hamilton, explains in her Cosi study guide, "particularly can give the 'heebie jeebies' to a thinking woman of the 21st century."
In order to modernize the archaic messages of the play, Elise Sandell, the stage director, went with a version of "Cosi Fan Tutte" set in the 1950's. This way, many of the troublesome lines and messages were satirized and much more inviting to laugh at.
The opera was as visually stunning as well as melodically brilliant. The set, originally used for a production of "Cosi Fan Tutte" in Santa Fe, N.M., was easily manipulated with lighting to turn from bright and cheery, to somber and poignant, to romantically beautiful, all within seconds.
The key to the Portland Opera's production's beauty on stage was its symmetry in the placement of its actors. A play with two couples gives interesting options for a director to take, and Sandell took this opportunity to create a both exciting and engaging stage presence for her actors.
Even though opera is generally viewed as an art form for older enthusiasts, the Portland Opera is making a conscious effort to include a wider variety of people in their audience.
"I think people who don't have experience with opera think it's snooty and something they should like," Hamilton said.
The final dress rehearsal for production is typically called the "student dress rehearsal" because the entire balcony is sold to students, Kindergarten to college-level. Educators with groups of 10 or more students get priority, but any student can be added to the list.
Tickets are $12 for students and $15 for educators. The seating is limited for dress rehearsals because the floor needs to be kept empty in order to keep the "rehearsal" feel for the actors.
"It is the most responsive as far as applauding and reacting to things," Hamilton said.
Having an audience present during the final dress rehearsal allows the actors to account for when there will be audience laughter. Both Hamilton and Hammontree explain that the student dress rehearsal is many of the performers' and crew's favorite night because of the bigger, less stunted reactions from the students.
"Particularly with younger kids, it's really fascinating to see how people who are new to the art form react," Hamilton said. "They don't have to swallow the pill that in opera land, everyone sings."
"Cosi Fan Tutte" is playing at the Keller Auditorium Feb. 5, 11 and 13 beginning at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee showing on Sunday, Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. Individual students are encouraged to come to the regular shows an hour early and buy student rush tickets, which are $10 for all unsold seats in the house.
