Germany Mozart, Così fan tutte: Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Bayerische Staatsoper / Vladimir Jurowski (conductor). Nationaltheater, Munich, 26.10.2022. (ALL)
Production:
Director – Benedict Andrews
Costumes – Victoria Behr
Settings – Magda Willi
Lightning – Mark Van Denesse
Dramaturgy – Katja Leclerc
Chorus director – Kamila Akhmedjanova
Cast:
Fiordiligi – Louise Alder
Dorabella – Avery Amereau
Despina – Sandrine Piau
Guglielmo – Konstantin Krimmel
Ferrando – Sebastian Kohlhepp
Don Alfonso – Christian Gerhaher
Così fan tutte is Mozart’s most tough to stage: half comedy, half tragedy and above all a really misogynistic story. The problem of any manufacturing is to know tips on how to do justice to all dimensions of the work with out falling into straightforward mawkishness or vulgarity.
From this viewpoint, director Benedict Andrews clearly set the tone in the beginning with neon lights asserting La scuola degli amanti going from a brilliant white to a barely soiled yellow shade. It is identical shade as within the room the place we see Don Alfonso, in a leather-based masks, giving some change to a maid who’s getting dressed. The room accommodates a unclean mattress and a doll fortress in Disney-like colours. In an excellent first jiffy, the tone is ready. These objects will return underneath totally different kinds and shapes with out ever discovering concord. Nobody will come out of this dangerous joke unscathed. Suffering is an efficient instructor, says the proverb…
This clever manufacturing was supported by convincing younger singer-actors. Some comedic parts have been very profitable and sensible however there have been additionally a couple of flaws. We might have completed with out some tasteless and simple results that don’t actually add something. The work was given with all recitatives and all arias, so this Così lasted a very good 4 hours, together with the intermission, and that’s too lengthy. Two years in the past, the Salzburg Festival offered a compact model of two and a half hours with out an intermission, chosen by the duo Joanna Mallwitz and Christof Loy. It was completed to satisfy pandemic restrictions, however the consequence was very convincing and profound.
The two {couples} have been carried out by younger singers of nice expertise. Louise Alder (Fiordiligi) has very lovely excessive notes (and has introduced that she is anticipating a cheerful occasion, congratulations!). Next to her, Avery Amereau (Dorabella) displayed excellent phrasing and a splendid velvet tone. The males took some time to make their marks, which occurs on opening nights, and Konstantin Krimmel (Guglielmo) having had Covid in the course of the rehearsals didn’t assist, however – along with Sebastian Kohlhepp’s Ferrando – he gained ease in the course of the second act. Sandrine Piau was a light-weight and assured Despina. Christian Gerhaher is a superb singer – as we all know – however produced the odd surprisingly intrusive sforzando at instances.
Vladimir Jurowski took inspiration from baroque follow, together with, pure horns and absence of vibrato within the strings The pit was barely raised to make sure that the musicians could possibly be heard in a corridor made for Wagner and Richard Strauss. There have been some very lovely moments, although some tempi have been a bit jerky and above all, a sure Mozartian singing line was lacking. Conductors akin to René Jacobs have proven that it’s doable to make Mozart sound nearly baroque whereas preserving his theatricality and move, which Jurowski, regardless of his expertise, didn’t obtain.
Antoine Lévy-Leboyer