The celebrated Toronto filmmaker Atom Egoyan has successfully staged several operas for the Canadian Opera Company, among them a harrowing, psychologically rich “Salome” and a striking, post-apocalyptic “Die Walkure.”
His one misfire, however, has been his 2014 staging of Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte,” which returned in 2019 and is back for a third shot at acceptance this season. Alas, the production still doesn’t work, but at least a gifted sextet of singing actors, all under Johannes Debus’ firm baton, bring Mozart’s score to vivid life.
Inspired by the opera’s subtitle, “The School for Lovers,” Egoyan has set the 1790 opera buffa in the world of a co-ed private school, particularly in what seems to be (in Debra Hanson’s handsome set) a science lab.
An oversized cabinet of curiosities dominates the stage, flanked by blown-up illustrations of butterflies.
There, the cynical headmaster/teacher Don Alfonso (Daniel Okulitch) has made a bet with Ferrando (Laurence Kilsby) and Guglielmo (Joel Allison) that their fiancées Dorabella (Martina Myskohlid) and Fiordiligi (Lauren Fagan), respectively, will not remain faithful.
And so the two men pretend to go off to war but quickly return disguised as moustachioed, overly emotive “Albanians” — cue a cringeworthy 18th-century cultural cliché — to woo the other’s fiancée. Tipped off by Alfonso, the women’s maid, Despina (Tracy Dahl), encourages them to swipe right on their new beaus, although she doesn’t know about the switcheroo.
Alfonso carries around a large pin — the kind you might use to pin the above-mentioned butterflies to a board in order to study them. Egoyan’s unsubtle point is that Alfonso will trap the young lovers, all to illustrate the “science” of mating patterns. If we don’t get this point, he spends a lot of the time shepherding around the COC chorus, dressed as students and often carrying clipboards, to study the subjects.
While this isn’t a terrible set-up, some of the details make little sense. Judging by their school uniforms (Hanson also designed the costumes), the four lovers appear to be students. A teacher betting on his younger charges’ sexual lives crosses all sorts of professional, and probably legal, boundaries, making this less “The School for Lovers” and more “The School for Scandal.”
It’s Egoyan’s use of the famous Frida Kahlo painting “The Two Fridas,” however, that is truly baffling. The painting, a double self-portrait painted in 1939, the year Kahlo divorced Diego Rivera, seems only tenuously connected to the themes and concerns of Mozart’s opera, even though Egoyan pedantically draws our attention to details of the canvas throughout the second act.
Thankfully, Mozart’s glorious music, and Lorenzo Da Ponte’s comic, if deeply misogynist libretto, remain intact.
Canadian Okulitch grounds the production with his firm, mellifluous bass-baritone voice and his nimble physicality and sly wit. It’s clear he’s the puppet-master in this production, which Egoyan underscores by having him occasionally pretend to conduct onstage as the chorus sings.
Dahl, who appeared in both previous stagings, might have lost some of the sparkle in her small voice, but she handles the comic beats of the role with aplomb. Her scheming Despina gets lots of laughs as she switches her maid’s outfit for a doctor’s uniform and then a notary’s robes.
The four lovers lack the psychological dimension of the characters from the two other Mozart/Da Ponte operas (“Don Giovanni” and “The Marriage of Figaro”), but the singers have fun with them.
Baritone Allison makes a charming Guglielmo, full of bombast when he initially believes his girlfriend is steadfast, while tenor Kilsby delivers some of the night’s most ravishing singing in the earnest but heartfelt first-act aria “Un’aura amorosa.”
My only issue with Fagan’s Fiordiligi and Myskohlid’s Dorabella is that their voices sound too similar — fitting, I suppose, since the characters are sisters — and they’ve both been styled with blonde wigs.
But soprano Fagan handles the difficulty of her big aria “Come scoglio” with brio and accuracy, while mezzo-soprano Myskohlid adds a fitting mock grandeur to her “Smanie implacabili.”
Conductor Debus gets brisk but unhurried playing from the COC orchestra. In the opera’s best musical moments, like the sublime farewell trio in the first act or the glorious quartet in the second, music, text and performance come together beautifully.
Forget those silly butterflies; Mozart’s music is enchanting enough to leave you floating on air.
Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request.
There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again.
You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply.
Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page.
