Cosi fan tutte set in the 1960s

[BeyondGeography]

Last edited Sat Mar 31, 2018, 12:56 PM - Edit history (1)

[Aristus]

1. Seattle Opera just did a production of 'Cosi' set in modern-day Seattle.

It was in Italian with English supratitles. The translation was altered to conform to the setting, and to include topical jokes.

When the servant girl comes in disguised as a doctor, she touts her accomplishments, including the number of languages she speaks. The supratitles listed the languages as: "English, French, Esperanto, Dothraki, and Jive."

It was hilarious.

There was a similar joke in SO's production of The Magic Flute last season, in which the Three Woodland Ladies complained to Pamino about 'fake news.'

[BeyondGeography]

2. Great stuff!

It’s obviously fun for the performers too. In this case, younger performers, who after all, these roles were meant for.

[Aristus]

3. In SO's production, the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella were played by real-life sisters.

Both of whom were very, very attractive.



The days of ingenue roles sung by 300lbs middle-aged singers is pretty-much over.

[fierywoman]

4. I had the great privilege and honor and joy to play two runs of

Cosí with the conductor Peter Maag, stage director Luca Ronconi. Maag also played the harpsichord from the podium. Total magic!

[BeyondGeography]

5. Thank you so much for this post

I think I’m in the scherzo of life right now, but you never know. Could be the 4th movement. I’m lost without great music and especially grateful to those who have dedicated themselves to it.

[fierywoman]

6. "Scherzo of life" -- what a beautiful way of putting it!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Looks more like late '60s, judging by the skirt lengths and

the portable TV (those didn't exist in the '50s). Great singing, though.

[BeyondGeography]

8. The TV is kind of Jetsonny

But the lipstick and the attitude seems kind of 50s to me. Not sure if the dresses were that short though, so you’re probably right.

Make that you are right:

https://mostlyopera.blogspot.com/2008/09/dvd-hilarious-cosi-fan-tutte-from.html?m=1

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. I was in college during the late '60s and had skirts similar to those.

So I recognized the era instantly.

There's a funny story about the first performances of the opera: "Mozart disliked prima donna Adriana Ferrarese del Bene, da Ponte's arrogant mistress for whom the role of Fiordiligi had been created. Knowing her idiosyncratic tendency to drop her chin on low notes and throw back her head on high ones, Mozart filled her showpiece aria Come scoglio with constant leaps from low to high and high to low in order to make Ferrarese's head "bob like a chicken" onstage." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cos%C3%AC_fan_tutte