Every year, the Tanglewood Music Center studies and performs one opera, in the old Theatre building, the only one at Tanglewood that has proper stage facilities and an orchestra pit. This year it was Così fan tutte under James Levine, and I had secured the ticket early because the theatre is not very big.
But when I was there, I began to wonder, was it worth it?
The director was Ira Siff of La Gran Scena Opera Company, a “travesty group with falsetto ‘divas’ ”. And so it should not have been much of a surprise that there was a lot of slapstick. The question though is, how far can one go interpreting a Mozartean dramma giocioso?
Not to0 inclined towards old operas in modern garb anyway, it took me a while to adjust, and I think I could only do so because of the superb singing and acting, at least with the cast I saw – there were two alternating casts over four nights of performances. Once one had adjusted one's mind, the set design was clever too, by John Michael Deegan and Sarah Cony. But I was never totally comfortable with the production and fully agree with the New York Times review below, including the “Saturday Night Live” catch phrase:
Live, from the Berkshires, it was Saturday Night!
The Sunday night cast were Chad A. Johnson (Ferrando), Matthew Worth (Guglielmo), Giles Tomkins (Don Alfonso), Layla Claire (Fiordiligi), Sarah Austin (Dorabella), and last but not least Kiera Duffy (Despina), who stole the show.
And BTW, I wholheartedly can recommend the new biography of da Ponte: Lorenzo Da Ponte, The Librettist of Venice: The Remarkable Life of Lorenzo da Ponte Mozart's Poet, Casanova's Friend, and Italian Opera's
Impresario in America by Rodney Bolt.
