Women Are Like That

Met poster for Cossi Fan Tutte

The last time I went to the Moart's opera, Cosi Fan Tutte, I decided I wouldn’t go back to hear it again.

Of course, I didn’t remember that until the opera was over on Saturday.

I don’t feel that I have to miss the opera again after watching this production.

I will be watching for the overtures May 5, 7, 9, 13 and June 2nd and if I am close by I will attend again.

The title in English means “Women Are Like That”.

The libretto is hard to take. A cruel trick played by men on their financees. But this production is so smart, so sophisticated, so sassy, so able to challenge the male/female binary, the idea that we should be one way or another is challenged.

Setting the show in the 1950’s was a plus for me, for that is when I was a teen-ager. I watched Ferrando (Ben Bliss) and Guglielmo (Adam Plachetka) take on the persona of the boys I used to watch in the ‘50’s. The posture of leaning against a wall, brushing back their duck tails, giving those “je ne sais quois” shrugs of the shoulders (which were really saying, hey look at me, babe). I can only take it that the rest of the audience was more sophisticated than me, the girl raised on the prairies, for they weren’t laughing as I was.

The overture was supplemented with a pantomime from performers whom we were to see later in the show. They all climbed out of a small trunk on stage, carrying different signs, each of which could make the audience laugh. They lined up to let that word make a sentence. Then they ran to a new position and the sentence took on new meaning. They took their final bow, left the stage and the music for the overture finished.

 I thought to myself, “Hey, I think I just missed the overture!” I am pretty sure I didn't hear a note of it, even though it was being played by probably the world's best orchestra.

Boa constrictor snake charmers, Siamese twins, sword swallowers, strong men, the tattooed man, the bearded woman. The opera had it all.

Signs inviting people to the side shows were like the ones I used to see at the fairs in the 1950’s. I liked seeing those signs having a better analysis now of what they were saying.

All of this and then Mozart’s wonderful music and the voices of the opera singers bouncing off of a satellite and coming to a theatre near me.

Pure bliss.

Arta