When I first heard that our seminar would be attending an opera at the Metropolitan, my initial reaction was a mixture of excitement and worry– worry over feeling intimidated by the atmosphere and its people, feeling undereducated about how to fully appreciate an opera, and perhaps hating what it would be like once I experienced it. I’m glad to say that a lot of my fears dissolved after seeing Cosi Fan Tutte and taking the time out to absorb it.
The opera’s physical aspects were incredibly impressive; I often found myself wondering how it is humanly possible for the main characters to maintain the volume and beauty of their voices throughout the entire opera without once faltering (at least by my amateur judgment). The sets were also visually stunning. The scene in which Fiordiligi and Dorabella, where the illusion of rolling grass fields and a broad sunny sky was first revealed, was just breathtakingly beautiful. I loved how the women’s embellished costuming, the set’s ethereal nature, and the singers’ voices combined were able to formulate such a gorgeous scene while remaining relevant to the plot’s purpose.
One thing that really made the opera approachable to me was how personable and developed each character was. While I acknowledged Fiordiligi and Dorabella as fairly dim-witted, naive women, I loved how the characters were still so endearing and developed. This aspect of the opera is probably a factor that plays into its popularity; viewers can relate to or at least understand the characters being portrayed and in turn feel their sorrows, pity their misfortunes, and acknowledge how painful it would feel to be tricked into false love by a fiance or loved one, whom one would commonly associate with trust and loyalty, as they were.
Another aspect that helped me absorb the opera, as well, was listening to our guest speaker’s passionate words regarding its plot and musical devices prior to watching it. His excitement for Cosi Fan Tutte really made me feel hyped about watching an opera for the first time and taking it all in. What he explained about the revelations and comments made by the musical instruments of the orchestra made me pay special attention while watching how each scene was carried out. I loved how he personified the instruments Mozart carefully curated into the musical pieces, and I felt especially influenced at the idea of viewing an opera’s overture as a story in itself. Even the historical context he provided, like Mozart’s love and original dedication to the theater, helped me further soak up my opera experience.
I was also really surprised at how entertaining Cosi Fan Tutte turned out to be. My expectation of how an opera would develop on stage was focused heavily on perhaps one or two characters filling each scene with extensive singing and little acting. Yet lively scenes, like when Despina convinced Dorabella and Fiordiligi to carelessly pursue additional lovers, kept my attention and proved me wrong.
Though I really enjoyed many aspects of the opera, I do have a few complaints about Cosi Fan Tutte. It was definitely lengthy, which I realize is part of the territory when approaching an opera but cumbersome nonetheless. I feel as if I would have been able to better appreciate the show had it not been for scenes in the first act being drawn out extensively. I also strongly disliked the blatant misogyny in many of its scenes. The women receive much of the blame for disregarding loyalty toward their fiances and taking on new partners, but wasn’t it deceitful and disloyal of Guglielmo and Ferrando at the start for agreeing to carry out such a cruel trick? In this sense, I wish the opera would have focused more on Guglielmo and Ferrando’s mistakes instead of just lightly brushing against the men’s foolishness and placing the disdain on the women.
Having the chance to see Cosi Fan Tutte, overall, was rewarding and exciting. The guest speaker’s comments on the opera as well as my own experience really helped me appreciate Cosi have really dissolved the intimidation I had about operas and have made me interested in viewing more in the future.
