Mozart meets Coney Island
The Metropolitan Opera's “Cosi fan tutte” melds sideshow performers with beautiful arias
If there’s a theme behind the Metropolitan Opera’s latest rendition of “Così fan tutte,” it’s “don’t worry so much and enjoy yourself.”
The stories behind operas — this one in particular — don’t tend to be literary masterpieces, so music, scenery and costumes have to do the heavy lifting. Mozart did more than half the work when he wrote “Cosi” more than two centuries ago. The music he penned is, as is usually the case, gorgeous. The rest was up to the Metropolitan Opera, which teamed with the English National Opera to transform the silly into the divine with pristine vocals and a fabulous mid-20th century backdrop set in, of all places, Coney Island.
“For me, Coney Island is a bit like a dreamworld,” Phelim McDermott, the opera’s director, said. “The 1950s was the heyday of the romance of that place. Costume-wise, it’s a great period for the singers.”