Media Round-Up and Further Commentary on Così fan tutte at San Francisco Opera

John Brancy as Guglielmo, Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Alfonso,
 and Ben Bliss as Ferrando in the opening scene of Mozart's "Così fan tutte."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Reviews of the San Francisco Così  are coming in, so here's the start of a round-up:

• Joshua Kosman, Chronicle (loves it)
• Christian Ocier, Parterre Box (ambivalent to negative)
• Steven Winn, SFCV (likes or loves it)
• Opera Tattler (likes it very much)
• William Burnett, Opera Warhorses (likes it)
• Harvey Steiman, Seen and Heard International (likes it)
• Lisa Hirsch, Opera News (loves it; review not yet posted)

It's interesting to see how the reviewers shake out over the liveliness of the production. For me and Joshua, it's an energetic delight, for Christian Ocier, it's "cartoonish farce", "oafish antics", "slapstick", and "cheap laughs."

Steven Winn also likes the production. I tried unsuccessfully to work something into my review about the production skating as close as possible to edge of farce without crossing the line, so I was aware of the risks Cavanagh took. Unlike Ocier, I felt he negotiated this fine line extremely well.

Ocier also points out Cabell's low-register weakness, and that's fair; I would have liked more punch in the low end of "Come scoglio," but otherwise I thought she did fine in the aria.

Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Alfonso and Nicole Heaston as Despina in Mozart's "Così fan tutte."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

My review tries to convey the intelligence of the direction, the virtues of which include the lack of stand-and-sing and ample helpings of well-motivated detail. The above photo puts some of this across: Despina is in the forefront, about to fake-shock Guglielmo and Ferrando back to consciousness after their fake suicides. Instead of standing and watching her, Don Alfonso is examining the magnets. This seems entirely in character for him. 

Nicole Heaston as Despina in Mozart's "Così fan tutte."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco opera

More evidence of the attention to detail that is typical of the production: you know those two books that Despina pulls out of a piano bench (I think) and hands to the sisters, who are reading magazines? I couldn't make out the titles even with binoculars, so I asked about them. They are Anais Nin's Winter of Artifice (published 1939) and Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer (published 1934). They just might bear on the subject matter of the opera, and they date the production precisely.

John Brancy as Guglielmo and Ben Bliss as Ferrando in Mozart's "Così fan tutte."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

The fur coats made me wonder whether this is a subtle nod to Mandryka in Arabella, but that's probably wrong. Another line I didn't manage to work in is "these people live in a world where a fake mustache and mussed hair are somehow a convincing disguise...only maybe they're not."

Nicole Cabell as Fiordiligi and Irene Roberts as Dorabella in Mozart's "Così fan tutte."

Photo: Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera

Aren't the sisters adorable??

Blasts from the past:

• Lisa Hirsch, writing about the summer, 2013 revival of the John Cox production
• Joshua Kosman on the spring run
• Joshua Kosman on the fall, 2012 run
• Joshua Kosman on the debut of the John Cox production
• Martin Bernheimer eviscerates the 1991 Harry Kupfer production

UPDATED: November 27, 2021