[Met Performance] CID:279180



Cos? Fan Tutte
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, January 10, 1985




Cos? Fan Tutte (102)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Lorenzo Da Ponte
Fiordiligi
Carol Vaness

Ferrando
Philip Langridge

Dorabella
Gail Dubinbaum

Guglielmo
Brian Schexnayder

Despina
Julia Hamari [Last performance]

Don Alfonso
Cornell MacNeil


Conductor
Jeffrey Tate







Review 1:

Review of Patrick J. Smith in Opera

"Cosi fan tutte" is one of the best arguments in favour of James Levine's plea for a second, smaller house, for the charming sets of Hayden Griffin and the vocal artistry on display on January 10 would have benefited from more intimate surroundings. Jeffrey Tate conducted with a lithe quickness, emphasizing enunciation, ensemble and cleanness of execution. This enlivened the action, though with time Tate may wish to linger longer and shape some of the music more expressively. The cast was well matched, playing the broad-brushed production of Graziella Sciutti (essentially that of Colin Graham's original, except that the lovers return to their first partners in the finale rather than staying with their second-act ones), which neither offends nor greatly illumines.

Carol Vaness's Fiordiligi was excellently sung, rising to great heights in her capitulation scene, though I find her at times cold and distant, partly because she does not enunciate well. Philip Langridge as Ferrando was a strong stage presence, while Brian Schexnayder (Guglielmo) revealed a light lyric baritone of pleasing quality. Gail Dubinbaum's Dorabella was pallidly sung (and in Act 1 hovered away from the pitch); Julia Hamari's Despina gave the best view of the standard performance. I was impressed by Cornell MacNeil's Alfonso, because I had not expected him to be such an accomplished Mozartean. The voice is, to be true, now dry, but his handling of the important recitatives was assured and the size of his voice gives a weight and presence to Mozart that justify "Cosi"'s being done in an auditorium seating 3800.



Search by season: 1984-85

Search by title: Cos? Fan Tutte,



Met careers