mcq wrote:First listen tonight to Teodor Currentzis' take on Cosi fan tutte. I loved his Le Nozze di Figaro last year and was looking forward to hearing his thoughts on this work. Cosi fan tutte is a work that has received its share of criticism on account of the libretto's inherent absurdities but, like all farces, there are dark undercurrents rippling underneath the surface and this opera shows its true colours, I believe, when this darkness is exposed rather than trivialised as a light, frothy ensemble comedy of manners (which it most certainly is not). Perhaps the key character is the scheming Don Alfonso who openly mocks the innocence of the young lovers. The plan he concocts, purportedly to test the fidelity of Fiordiligi and Dorabella and to reassure Ferrando and Guglielmo of their lovers' devotion, ultimately robs them of their innocence. The real tragedy of Le Nozze di Figaro is that Susanna and Figaro are doomed to grow into, respectively, the sad, unfulfilled Countess and the insecure, womanising, pompous Count, and so too will the young innocents in Cosi grow up in this way. Both operas gradually become damning indictments of a cynical and soulless contemporary society and this is where DaPonte's and Mozart's genius lies. Currentzis' interpretation of this masterpiece bristles with breathless energy and a sense of pace and drama that befits the work and yet there is no sense of the music being unduly rushed but simply a sense of onward momentum that is as mercilessly savage as the loss of innocence that the young lovers endure. I look forward to his take on Don Giovanni which is promised this autumn.
I know nothing of these forces so I went on to Amazon UK and under their listing for his Nozze di Figaro there is a promotional video that is really very worthwhile watching; I was most impressed!
