Opera is an art I have never quite understood or appreciated. My mother has taken me to listen to opera in the past, mainly as an activity for the holiday season. I don’t recall ever enjoying it or savoring it. I have, however, always liked listening to Mozart, without ever really knowing the ins and outs of his music and what he conveyed with it. Mark Ringer opened my eyes to Mozart’s calculated musical rhythms and moods. Every simple change in rhythm and sound was composed on purpose and correlated with the plot of “Cosi Fan Tutte.” As for Mark Ringer himself, I enjoyed his enthusiasm for opera and the history behind it. His intro to “Cosi Fan Tutte” was truly useful and made watching the performance so much simpler. He pointed out the comedic aspects of the music and women in the opera, as well as their newly-formed, yet now serious, feelings for the foreigners. He backed up his descriptions of the libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte by playing us little parts from the opera, which worked in perfectly.
“Cosi Fan Tutte” exceeded my expectations for an opera. The settings and props were varied and always appealing to the eye, specifically the garden and the trees. I felt that the actors were chosen appropriately. Especially after the foreigners showed up, the couples matched up by hair color and outfits: Dorabella (brunette) fell in love with Guglielmo (brunette/black outfit), while Fiordiligi (blonde) fell for Ferrando (blonde/white outfit). Both the men and women were farcical, as promised, and solemn when things didn’t go their way. Despina, although not a main character, stood out with her solo performance. The singing, which lacked a microphone, was obviously remarkable. The voices of the sopranos (Fiordiligi and Despina) and the baritone (Guglielmo) were so booming and echoing that it was hard to believe that there was no sound system set up to help them.The atmosphere at the Met Opera made me feel royal and somewhat special, but I did feel slightly out of place. Most of all, I was a fan of the plot of “Cosi Fan Tutte.” I thought it was witty and unveiled a disappointing truth about society, one that we all tend to deny.
-Polina Mikhelzon
