It’s a wily approach to manner Mozart’s perennially usual tiny investmrent, which owes its continuity to the elegant emotional weave of the composer’s ranking and its long-term dating with the contract “problematic” to Lorenzo Da Ponte’s libretto.
Such a lot of the opera’s inner good judgment (if one may name it that) is determined by a footing that has been culturally farmland to powder; the residue is dependent upon a postponed of disbelief tantamount to a reversal of gravity itself: How do Fiordiligi and Dorabella no longer acknowledge their treacherous suitors? How do their affections sway so wildly inside the process a future? How do they no longer know that the secret notary is Despina? What’s improper with those nation?
Rigazzi flips this fixer-upper into a swish, unfussy replace that assists in keeping the heart of the opera in large part in park month doing some key tweaks at the finishes. There are smartphones and selfies, detailed tees and Manic Panic dye jobs, grownup toys and bumps of coke, implied f-bombs and 2 (consequentially!) flipped birds. He slaps brandnew scene titles over the degree — e.g., “The Bet,” “The Help,” “The Makeover” — lending the motion greater than a soupçon of sitcom.
However probably the most recent side to Rigazzi’s rush is the best way he gently turns up the opera’s personal self-awareness: the characters rising weary of their very own absurd ordeal, the tale suffering in opposition to the stream of its personal cultural asynchrony. It is a manufacturing blessed with a number of singers who’re simply naturally humorous, however it’s Rigazzi’s wry course that hip-checks this “Così” from dramma giocoso (jocular drama) into natural comedy.
Soprano Renée Richardson introduced bold energy and agility to her Fiordiligi; her “Come scoglio” in Business I used to be an early thrill. And mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner made a satisfying Dorabella, providing sumptuous runs in an Business I duet with Fiordiligi that felt like a knife struggle (“Ah, guarda, sorella”) and bringing stunning lightness to her Business II aria (“È amore un ladroncello”).
I additionally liked their gleeful Business II duet (“Prenderò quel brunettino”), however most commonly I loved how humorous they have been. The chemistry in their pairing bubbled all night time (a large plus for an overlong opera), whether or not they have been mourning their fates in blankets and slippers or teetering at the fringe of a anxious breakdown at a marriage with all of the solemnity of a fact display.
My favourite efficiency of the night time was once mezzo-soprano Emily Treigle as meddlesome maid Despina, rendered right here as a lovably tough and vaguely goth pot-stirrer. Her superb and spirited “In uomini, in soldati” felt emblematic of all the display’s likable vibe, in addition to her elegant tone, which the comedian calling of the function by no means controlled to crop. (She did, on the other hand, dispose fully of right kind diction when disguised because the notary, to completely hilarious impact.) A wonderful singer (she’s a brilliant finals winner of the 2021 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition) and a fantastic actress, Treigle is a key a part of this manufacturing’s luck.
I do want the boys have been a smidgen funnier, even supposing they’re no longer truly meant to be. The trio of Guglielmo (baritone Kyle White), Ferrando (tenor Lunga Eric Hallam) and Don Alfonso (bass Wm. Clay Thompson) wasn’t rather foolish enough quantity on the outset and left a tiny residue comedian ice unbroken. (The additions of mustaches, wigs and bliss fits did backup loosen issues up a bit of as soon as the suitors resorted to hide.)
Hallam’s tenor had a phenomenal glow and flutter to it, its amber colour a pretty supplement to White’s rounder, extra rustic baritone. Thompson’s in lieu picket Alfonso ultimately grew on me, however it is a function no longer as well-tailored to him as his flip making a song Méphistophélès within the corporate’s 2023 manufacturing of Gounod’s “Faust.” Alfonso is in some way a larger dirtbag, and Thompson’s tone felt too sun-baked (learn: no longer sticky) and distilled of a considered necessary toxicity.
Christine Brandes carried out the Wolf Entice Opera Orchestra with focal point and depth, discovering explicit readability when it counted maximum, all over complicated stretches of ensemble making a song. (Scream-out to the acoustic include of the untouched Barn itself for making such fresh stability conceivable in any respect.) Musically, it was once an evening characterised via marvelous tangles of woodwinds, hardened statements of stories, and durable stage-side continuo furnished via Lori Barnet on cello and William Woodard on fortepiano.
Supplemental unsolicited percussion was once equipped via the target audience, who dropped at least 5 telephones at the flooring at adventurously arrhythmic periods all over the efficiency. You will have to see the glance I’m providing you with at this time.
With out brilliant revision or intervention, Rigazzi’s subtle “Così” performs it impish via leaning in to the silly — its goofy portrait a double publicity of the sexes that has us all improper however will get the whole lot proper.
Così fan tutte runs thru June 29 on the Barns at Wolf Entice, wolftrap.org.
