Cosi fan tutte. Conducted by Teodor Currentzis
On 9 December, maestro Teodor Currentzis will present the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre’s production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte as part of the Golden Mask Festival in St. Petersburg. For the first time in his career, this outstanding graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and the last pupil of the legendary Ilya Musin, will perform at a theatre in the city where he studied.
Teodor Currentzis is considered one of the best interpreters of baroque music. On the Mikhailovsky stage, he will direct the performance that earned him the 2013 Golden Mask for Best Conductor in Opera.
“This Mozart opera is able to cover several eras at once”, Currentzis is quoted as saying on the Golden Masks website. “That is, as the composer flirts with romanticism, creating the «architectural plan» for the sound of the nineteenth century, he also yields to baroque techniques. This leads to surprising experiments, especially in the ensembles. In a sense, this makes Cosi fan tutte the last baroque opera, and at the same time, the first romantic opera.”
This is the first opera in the history of Russian theatre to be staged in an authentic manner. Not only do the instruments and vocal techniques in this performance date back to the period concerned, the fabrics and cut of the costumes are also of the late eighteenth century, and the scenery replicates the interior of a Neapolitan villa during the late baroque period. “This is officially known as historically informed performance”, OpenSpace.ru noted after the première. “But it could not be less like a museum. The maestro juggles eras and styles, taking from Mozart the ritual drama of the baroque opera seria here, and romantic charm there.”
The plot concerns two sisters and how they become the victims of a cruel trick played by their fiancés the day before their weddings — a story which remains relevant in any era. Caught in a web of contradictory relationships, entangled in numerous costume changes, the main characters experience real inner turmoil.
