Cosi fan tutte, San Francisco Opera, June 9 2013

Cosi fan tutte returned to the San Francisco Opera stage after an absence of 8 years, repeating the previous production that was set in a seaside resort. The constant throughout the opera was two sets of three square gold-painted pillars, arranged in the form of an acute triangle with the acute angle toward the center of the stage; the pillars supported cross-beams. As the curtain went up, the back wall was an opaque curtain; downstage, Don Alfonso acted as the croupier at a roulette table—fitting, as he and the pair of young men enter into a bet as to the fidelity of their women. Throughout the various scenes of the opera, appropriate furniture such as sofas, beach chairs, and a desk, is brought on stage. At times the curtain in back parted to reveal the beach of the resort, with a bay behind the beach, a distant shoreline behind the bay, and pastel mountains behind that. Numerous small boats were tied up at the edge of the beach. OK, but nothing particularly noteworthy.

Our cast: 
Don Alfonso: Marco Vinco
Ferrando: Francesco Demuro
Guglielmo: Philippe Sly
Fiordiligi: Ellie Dehn
Dorabella: Christel Lötzsch
Despina: Susannah Biller
Conductor: Nicola Luisotti
Director: Jose Maria Condemi
Production: John Cox

From beginning to end, in every scene, the directing and the acting were superb. It was really easy to imagine that I was looking at something that was actually happening, the singers’ actions were that natural. Vocally, the standout performance was that of Philippe Sly as Guglielmo. He is “only” a first-year Adler Fellow, having participated in the Merola summer program only two years ago, but he displayed prodigious gifts in a major role. If only we could have heard this much of Leah Crocetto this early in her career! The other two men sang well enough; my major quibble was that Don Alfonso, who is supposed to have vastly more worldly experience than the two lovers, appeared to be approximately the same age as they. Ellie Dehn had a hard time managing the lowest notes in her aria “Come scoglio,” in which the vocal line features extreme leaps from high notes to low notes and back to high. (Theory has it that Mozart was tweaking his first Fiordiligi.) Susannah Biller’s Despina wasn’t quite as sparkly and perky as one might hope for. But, all in all, it was a very enjoyable afternoon—a strong beta.