Classical comedy

Mozart opera tickles Abu Dhabi audience

The passage of the centuries, countless social changes, and the rise of the science of psychology have left one thing unchanged. Men simply don't understand what women want. Sometimes men even get the feeling that women have their own secret agenda. Just paranoia? That feeling, paranoid or not, serves as the backdrop for Mozart's irreverent comic opera, Cosi fan Tutte, performed at Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation recently.

Cosi fan Tutte, Italian for 'Women Are All Like That', takes a playful shot at love and fidelity. Two young officers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, are challenged to a wager by their friend Don Alfonso. The cynical Don Alfonso says that women can't possibly be loyal - it's against their nature. To prove it, he plans a little ruse.

The two officers will disguise themselves and try to draw their fiancees, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, into disloyalty. When Don Alfonso's plan hatches, the four young lovers learn an uncomfortable lesson, but emerge a little wiser and every bit as much in love.

Dr Kelly Hale, musical director of the performance company from the University of Cincinnati, U.S., said even though Mozart composed Cosi fan Tutte in the 18th century Europe, the piece still shines, even in the 21st century.

"It's a silly story, but it's something everyone can relate to - Mozart is making fun of love." He said the real driving force behind Cosi fan Tutte is the music, "some of the most gloriously beautiful music ever composed for voice".

The company, comprised of graduate students from the University of Cincinnati's Conservatory of Music, rendered an inventive yet competent performance. Hale provided sole accompaniment on piano, which put Cosi fan Tutte's compositional brilliance to the fore.

Mozart's alternately stark chordage and fluttering melodic runs stood out sharply against the empty aural space, and blended well with the simple yet tasteful Roaring Twenties era set which featured elegant antique furnishings.

The costumes provided a quirky flair, especially when the two young heroes appeared in their disguises: Brightly coloured cowboy outfits complete with 10-gallon hats, snail-trail boots, and hilarious handlebar moustaches. At times the production's creative simplicity felt more like the mid-20th century musical The Fantasticks than a classical opera.

But the performers backed this lighthearted novelty with solid vocal skill. The real stars of the show were the tandem of Elizabeth George (Fiordiligi) and Carolyn Kahl (Dorabella). They played sisters on stage while showing an equally deep artistic connection, several times weaving cross-stage exchanges into shimmering braids of sound.

They were aided throughout by the competent soprano Andrea Jones (Despina), who served as a well-grounded fulcrum to George and Kahl's back-and-forth comic energy, and who wasn't afraid to get downright silly when the action called for it. Gregory Gerbrandt (Guglielmo) was an especially lively fixture, playing up the slapstick comedy with an abandon that would have made Chevy Chase envious.

The Abu Dhabi performance of Cosi fan Tutte organised by the Abu Dhabi Music Foundation closes the company's run in the UAE which included shows at the American University of Sharjah and Crowne Plaza Hotel Dubai.

Hale is delighted with the company's reception in the Emirates. "This is the first time we have been here and it has been wonderful. The people here are a little starved for opera, so our audiences have been highly responsive," he grinned. The group will close their Middle East tour with their performance at the American University of Cairo, Egypt.