Bavarian State Opera: New production of Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” – Munich

Mozart changed. There is that fateful “e”, tutte, not the all-encompassing masculine tutti. “Cosi fan tutte”. It is women who are seductive, all of them. Why does Mozart quote himself here, or rather Don Basilo, who in “Figaro” comes to the conclusion: “Così fan tutte le belle”, “that’s how all beautiful people do it”? Why doesn’t he leave it at the much more harmless title that his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte chose for their last opera together, “La scuola degli amanti” – “The School of Lovers”? Well, someone like Mozart knew only too well what he was doing: premiered on January 26, 1790 in Vienna’s Burgtheater. Then the client, Emperor Joseph II, dies and after only ten more performances the dramma giocoso is canceled. The court mourning is not the only reason for this failure, the frivolous comedy of mistaken identity about love and loyalty is suspect to the audience. Something is wrong with this beguiling music, it leaves a bitter aftertaste.

When “Così fan tutte” came on stage in 1795 in the Königliches Residenztheater, today’s Cuvilliéstheater, the composer had already been dead for four years. And in Munich, too, the opera was alienated for a long time before Richard Strauss took on the matter in 1897, and the “Così” became a Munich repertoire piece in the 20th century. The audience of the Biedermeier, however, does not want to let their ideas of love and snow-white (wife) fidelity be ridiculed by Mozart’s immoral offers. One prefers to join the humorless Richard Wagner, who dismisses this “Così” as a frivolous, banal ding-a-ling on which Mozart squandered his divine genius. But Wagner, of all people, who gave the world the Tristan chord, should have listened better!

For example in “Soave sia il vento”, probably the most beautiful three minutes of music in opera history. This terzettino alone is worth a visit to the New production of “Così”, which premieres at the Bavarian State Opera on Wednesday, October 26th. Here we are in the middle of the first act, the tipping point of the opera. Sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella mourn the loss of their fiancés, Guilelmo and Ferrando, who appear to be going to war. Chief schemer Don Alfonso is with them. He bet the men on the infidelity of the women. Soon the two will return in disguise and do everything they can to steal from each other the lovers in whose faithfulness they believe with manly vanity. But Mozart’s music knows more than his characters, and in this ravishingly delicate trio anticipates all the reluctant feelings that are yet to befall his staff; just on the word “desir”, desire, the three voices merge into a disturbing, dissonant seven-tone sound. The human experiment has begun. Let’s talk about sex.

For Benedict Andrews, who is celebrating his in-house debut with his production at the Nationaltheater, desire is the driving force that shakes all romantic concepts of monogamy and family as the nucleus of society. The Australian theater and film director (“Seberg” 2019), about whom the actress Cate Blanchett once said that he would wrestle any text to the ground, dissects the ideal of love down to the bone until a great emptiness opens up in the end. According to his dramaturge Katja Leclerc, he approached the subject very analytically, consulting the thinking of the Slovenian star philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek, whose book “Sex and the Missed Absolute” caused a sensation. For someone like Žižek, accepting the loss of control, learning to “deal with ultimate failure” is the essence of love. And also for Andrews – and Mozart – the essence of this opera.

Open detailed view

The production, which according to the Staatsoper, unlike the director Serge Dorny announced in May, will not be the start of a new Da Ponte cycle, promises an exciting interpretation of Mozart’s work. Especially since almost all the other actors make their debuts here alongside Andrews: Vladimir Jurowski conducts his first Così fan tutte and thus also his first Mozart opera as general music director at the house, chamber singer Christian Gerhaher, like Jurowski a great researcher of the deep soul, sings Don Alfonso for the first time Times. There will also be role premieres for the young lovers Louise Alder (Fiordiligi), Avery Amerau (Dorabella), Sebastian Kohlhepp (Ferrando) and ensemble member Konstantin Krimmel (Guilelmo). And Magda Willi, also working for the State Opera for the first time, creates locations that move into the open stage space like film sets and thus make the artificiality of the love experiment clear to the audience. Because we are all, tutte e tutti, part of this game.

Così fan tutte, Bavarian State Opera, Premiere Wed., October 26, 7 p.m., the performance will be broadcast as a video live stream on BR-Klassik Concert and staatsoper.tv transmitted and is then available for 30 days as video-on-demand. Information and further performances below www.staatsoper.de