Michael R. Anderson
Cast members (from left): Fiordiligi (Cayla Rosche), Ferrando (Benjamin Hopkins), Don Alfonso (James Harrington) and Guglielmo (Kevin Green)..
University Opera’s new production of Così fan tutte is an absolute delight, and you mustn’t miss it. There is one more performance on March 3 at Music Hall on the UW-Madison campus.
Really, if you think opera is way over your head, know that Così is barely more nuanced than an episode of The Brady Bunch. It’s about two men who make a bet with a third. Are their girlfriends forever faithful? To prove it, and win the bet, they dress up as exotic strangers, to flirt with the women, and plead love. Will the women give in to temptation? And will all come out right in the end?
It’s basically a sitcom written by Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte, the librettist who also wrote Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, the latter as dark as opera ever gets. It premiered in 1790, so it’s interesting to note that what audiences laughed at then, we still laugh at today. It also makes one wonder what Mozart and Da Ponte could have done with Gilligan’s Island.
Relocated to the 1920s, University Opera’s Così features one of the most brilliant sets I’ve ever seen, all of it Art Moderne. Designer Joseph Varga literally sets the stage — and the tone — for a superior production.
Director David Ronis plays yet more games with the audience, presenting the brave male lovers as...lumberjacks? Many of the roles are double cast, and the singers are uniformly strong.
On March 1, Rachel Love stood out in the role of Fiordiligi, owning the show. A fantastically powerful soprano, her voice is like chocolate-covered strawberries. Her every aria was a marvel. Watch for great things in her future.
Twinned with her was soprano Julia Urbank as Dorabella, a lithe comedian in the spirit of Lucille Ball. It’s a pity that she didn’t get more opportunity to show her flair for physical comedy, but slapstick must necessarily be limited while one is singing.
James Harrington returns from the November’s University Opera presentation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In that he played Bottom, a lout. In Così he plays debonair Don Alfonso, a Svengali who actuates and controls the entire story. His rich, round bass commands all the characters — and the audience.
Even with such a wealth of talent around her, Carly Ochoa more than held her own as the ever-costumed maid, Despina. With a Louise Brooks bob, a pleasant, bright voice and a wicked sense of comic timing, she’s blessed with that indefinable quality that theater folk call “presence.” At curtain call she was an audience favorite, drawing yells.
The performance drew a well-deserved standing ovation.