Music Appreciation Concert Report: Cosi Fan Tutte

I attended an opera by Mozart titled Cosi Fan Tutte with my grandparents. It was in Houston Tx. at the Houston Grand Opera House September 22 from 7:00-10:30. The performers were Elizabeth Futral as Fiordiligi, Uliana Alexyuk as Dorabella, Jason Graae as Don Alfonso, Joseph Kaiser as Ferrando, Liam Bonner as Guglielmo, Dannielle DuBose as Despina. The orchestra was The Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus. The performers did attempt to authenticate the performance the size of the orchestra was the same as the original, the original performance consisted of instruments that are still widely used today such as, flutes, oboes, trumpets, and violins (etc.) this was a characteristic of classical music.

There was a standard group of four sections, strings woodwinds, brass, and percussion. This performance made me want to go to many more operas! I really loved the whole thing. I enjoyed the entire atmosphere the entire performance. I am looking forward to doing my second concert report and seeing many operas in the future. I had two favorite pieces throughout out this opera. Una donna a 15 anni and the finale Ah, Signor, Son Rea Di Morte. First I want to discuss Una donna a 15 anni. This piece of the opera was an aria, Despina was the soloist. This opera was made during the classical period which was known for a few characteristics. This piece has a flexible rhythm, unexpected pauses, syncopations, and frequent changes from long notes to shorter notes.

This exert has a very classical melody, it is balanced there is a beginning and end which sound very much alike, it is also very catchy and will have you humming the tune later. Before I attended this opera I skipped to the classical period in our text book and read over a few sections that I thought would be relevant to the performance. While I was watching I recognized a lot of the characteristics between this performance and other classical music. This heightened my appreciation of the opera.

This piece was supposed to be some what of a comedic piece, Despina the maid is trying to convince her maidens that it is okay to flirt with other men while their fiancés are at war, she is only trying to convince them because she will get a reward if the are caught cheating. Despina had great body language and facial expressions; she set the mood very well. She really created Despinas character with this song, being tricky and sneaky, whispering to the audience when Dorabella and Fiordiligi were looking away.

The most memorable parts of this piece were the staccato and vivace parts. She sings very bouncy and lively through this piece with the last note of the meter being very high pitched.

Within this aria there were several different movements. When she firsts starts singing this aria the song is sung in legato and andante. After a short pause this piece turns into staccato and allegro (which soon after turns into vivace). The last section of this piece is sung in legota and allegro.

Now the finale of the opera was Ah, Signor, Son Rea Di Morte This ensemble has a very classical texture, going from monophonic, to homophonic, back to monophonic and then reaching polyphonic very suddenly. The texture is very flexible.

This piece is the most dramatic piece through the entire opera! It is the point in the play when the sisters find out there fiancés had dressed up to like strange Albanian men to see if they would ever cheat while they were supposed to be at war. The sisters are horrified that there fiancés have come back from war shortly after they had married other men. The fiancés Ferrando and Guglielmo are very angry at the sisters. This finale consists of a back and forth between the man and the women expressing how they feel. The sisters are embarrassed and feel they are going crazy. The men are mocking them because they are hurt. This composition evoked lost of feelings. You could not tell that the women were acting they seemed ashamed of them selves they used superb facial expressions and body language to depict there sorrow. The men were very angry but by there acting and body movement you could tell they were heart broken as well.

I tended to remember the slower lyrical parts of this piece because they were very flowy and meaningful. When the women sang about how ashamed they were they sung in legato and grave. But after there measure the men sung in a staccato moderato. The back and forth was very pleasing I thought it sounded beautiful.

I feel that the performers in this opera did a superb job at projecting emotional meaning. Every performer seemed very involved in their character. When sorrow was supposed to be depicted I felt that the performers were showing true feeling not acting! They put plenty of emotion in their singing as well. I feel that they could not have done a better job.

The dynamics throughout the piece were appropriate and there was much variety. There was not a point in the opera when I thought the dynamics were not appropriate. The opera was never sung in pianissimo or fortissimo which are too extreme for comfort in my opinion.

There was a variety of different tempos through out the play ranging from adagio to vivace. I think the tempos were appropriate in every situation. The melodic lines were projected with a feeling of forward motion. The whole piece had continuity and could tell when a piece ended and another started. I had trouble hearing climaxes throughout this opera. There was great balance between the main melodic line and the accompaniment, I felt that each part was equal neither over powering the other.

The singers in this performance were very skilled and had amazing voices, I couldn’t have hoped for a better cast. The instruments sounded very high quality and made beautiful notes. The cast did an amazing job when it came to body motions and facial expressions, It was definitely a plus. I very much enjoyed the balance and give-and-take between the orchestra. I felt that they intertwined very beautifully.

I believe that the conductor had the ensamble under control the entire time. His hand and body movements matched the music and I felt it was correct the whole performance.

This was a very high quality opera production. There were not that many set changes on stage but the few that they had were extensively worked on and matched what was going on so perfectly. The costumes were very beautiful and vintage looking. The dresses the women wore were obviously expensive they were very gorgeous. The people that rearranged the sets on stage were dressed in costumes to match the setting and time of the play; I thought this was very clever and pleasing to the eye because it was different from all the plays I had seen before in which the people changing the sets were dressed in all black.

The opera was sung in its original language, Italian, with English Subtitles. I enjoyed the English subtitles because I would have never known what was going on with out them (not that the actors weren’t great, I’m just horrible at that kind of stuff). The opera was also presented in its original setting; Naples 1790.

I thought that the actors were amazing. I don’t think they could have chosen a better cast. The romantic chemistry between Dorabella and Ferrando was a bit more believable than Fiordiligi and Guglielmo. But I was very very pleased with all the actors. Don Alfonso was played very well he even when he was in the background observing his destruction, sneaking around he still managed to be a main focal point. Despina was my favorite actress because she seemed really committed to her part! Her facial expressions were priceless through out the whole performance.

There was a point in the performance when the orchestra over powered the soloist to the point were I could not hear him sing I’m not sure whether he was running out of breath or if the orchestra was playing the wrong dynamic but it was fixed shortly after.