Marcin Roncancio
Seeing Cosi Fan Tutte last week at the Metropolitan Opera was the best experience I’ve had in this class. It was an incredible end to an interesting semester of new things. As a result of taking this class I’ve participated in gallery talks and gone to a great variety of different performances that I would never have stumbled upon otherwise, and while all were great learning experiences I haven’t ever been so struck by one the way I was by this opera. I will definitely go back to see others, or even to see Cosi again. A large part of why I derived so much enjoyment from this performance was the little things Professor Jablonka had us do to prepare: looking at clips of the music and such online, listening to Mark Ringer on the opera, and getting to know more about it from the singer’s perspective from our meeting with Danielle Deniese.
Mr. Ringer’s talk about the music and all the parts about it, and the way it relates to the story of the opera really intrigued me. Although Cosi can sometimes be considered one of Mozart’s lesser operas, whether that means less popular or less in quality, I thought this production of it was really phenomenal. The intricacies of the music, and the way the composer could shift one’s perspective of the opera so subliminally blew me away. I would never have guessed that the pairings of the voices, a higher voice with a higher voice and a lower voice with a lower voice, would be used as a device in the telling of an opera, but of course, in Cosi these pairings seem to be completely intentional and inspire a lot of thought.
Meeting Ms. Deniese was a great opportunity. She was able to impress me on both the stage and in person. I loved hearing her perspective on her role of Despina, and the different ways she has played it in other productions of the same opera. Her antics on the stage, from her entrance to her exit, and her lines and personality really gave life to the opera.
Before going in to see the opera, I was afraid it would be boring, or completely incomprehensible, but I think that even without the subtitles the intentions of every singer could be read. I was at some points surprised by how much of the Italian I actually understood, in part because (as a native Spanish speaker) I had the subtitles set to Spanish, and decided to challenge myself to see how much of what was sung I could translate. Ultimately I found that simply watching the action was more than enough, but either way, this has definitely undone the myth that a new audience member cannot understand opera in my mind.
For a large part of the second half I sat with the subtitles turned off, because I wanted to really get the feel for the traditional opera, without the strangely anachronistic element of the subtitles. While I think that including them is a genius idea that probably makes opera feel much more accessible to the average audience member, it can also detract from the action of the opera. I feel as though opera is an art that celebrates the traditional ways of doing things in certain respects, the largest of which is probably that no microphones are used by opera singers. I don’t believe that anyone new to opera (including myself!) can truly grasp how difficult it must be, and how remarkable a talent it is to harness the power of the human voice in such a beautiful way.
Overall, this performance really raised my expectations, and I hope to see more like it in the future.
