 | Ferrando (Luis Yo) informs his sweetheart, Dorabella (Rebecca Ringle), that he must leave to join his regiment -- one of the fabrications that unleashes the comic chain of events in Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte." |
The fabled fickleness of the female sex is put to the test in the operatic comedy of errors "Cosi fan tutte," which will be presented by the Yale Opera Friday-Sunday, Feb. 10-12, in the Shubert Theater, 247 College St.
The singers from Yale Opera will present the classic work by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with accompaniment by the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale. The production will be directed by Colin Graham, and conducted by Dominique Trottein. Doris Yarick Cross is the artistic director of Yale Opera, a department of the School of Music.
"Cosi fan tutte" (often translated as "Women Are Like That") begins when an old cynic named Don Alfonso makes a bet with two soldiers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, that their fiancées would not remain faithful to them in their absence. Alfonso makes the men pretend to leave Naples and return in disguise to woo the women, sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella. Meanwhile, he enlists the help of Despina, the sisters' maid, to prove his point about women's fickleness. The resulting romantic chaos is eventually resolved amidst moralizing about forgiveness.
The new production was specially conceived for the Yale Opera by Graham and features an original set designed by School of Drama alumna Blythe Quinlan. Yale Opera's production of "Cosi fan tutte" is a highlight in the School of Music's year-long celebration of Mozart's 250th birthday.
The major roles in "Cosi fan tutte" are double cast as follows: Elona Ceno and Sara Jakubiak as Fiordiligi; Abigail Nims and Rebecca Ringle as Dorabella; Daniel Bircher and Diego Matamoros as Guglielmo; Matthew Plenk and Luis Yo as Ferrando; Sumi Kittelberger and Lielle Berman Robertson as Despina; and Shelby Condray and Eric Downs as Don Alfonso.
The British-born Graham is an internationally known stage director of opera, theater and television, with more than 400 productions to his credit worldwide. All told, he has directed 56 world premieres, a record unsurpassed by any other director. Early in his career, Graham had a long association with the work of composer Benjamin Britten, directing all but one of his stage works. Former artistic director of the English Music Theatre, among other posts, Graham has been artistic director of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for the past 25 years. He has written librettos for operas by Andre Previn and Britten, among others. He was named an Officer of the British Empire in 2001 "for services to British opera and music in the U.S.A.."
Trottein has conducted operas in his native France and at international houses in Turin, Milan, Düsseldorf, Russia and Poland. Interested in all musical genres, particularly musical comedy and ballet, he premiered a new version of "l'Auberge du Cheval Blanc" and participated in the French premiere of "Candide" and the European premiere of "Le soldat Schweik" in Dijon. He has directed many concerts in Marseilles at the sacred music festival, and in 2004 was invited by the Verdi Orchestra of Milan to conduct a concert of American music in collaboration with Yale. A former music director for Duo Dijon, he is currently artistic director of La Jeune Troup d'Opera.
"Cosi fan tutte" will be presented at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $18-$40; student tickets are $10. Seniors get a 15% discount, and Yale faculty and staff get a 50% discount. Special group rates are also available. Tickets can be purchased in person 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday at the Shubert box office, 247 College St.; by calling (203) 562-5666 or (888) 736-2663; or online at www.shubert.com.
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