Friday, July 10, 2020

Cosi Fan Tutte on The Abuse of Women.


Still watching an opera a day and this is about my third Cosi in the Covid 19 world.
I love the music, but it is such a cruel, abusive piece. Tricking two innocent women into being unfaithful and then palming it off as a joke may have been acceptable in Mozart's day but not now. My favourite Spanish version ends in tragedy for the young women and young men. It is a horrible way to win a bet.

Beautiful traditional production but one could tell none of the singers was happy performing it as is shown in the commentary at the end.  They have to do this to live. The Dorabella was very unhappy when the young women are made to apologise for an indiscretion that was forced upon them  and their abusive boyfriends get off scot-free. It is an appalling piece. With hindsight, it is rather grisly to see the fawning. on the now known to be flawed James Levine. Maybe we should change the end as they did in Madrid.

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