Cosi fan tutte at the National Theater

Romance is in the air now that spring has returned, and even the National Theater seems to be getting into the mood, pulling a comical romance from their repertoire: Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.

The opera, which is literally titled "Thus do they all," is decidedly lighter fare than most of Mozart's work, and those looking for high art are likely to be disappointed. The story involves two soldiers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, who make a bet that their fiancées Fiordiligi and Dorabella will be faithful, even during their extended absence from Naples. The soldiers set up an elaborate ploy whereby they leave home only to return in disguises and set out to woo their unsuspecting women, who, after some parrying, fall prey to their passions.

The National Theater premiered this production last year, and while the postmodern set design provoked grumbles from some critics, there is no denying the splendor of the cast: star soprano Maria Fajtová in the role of Fiordiligi, Estonian soprano Annely Peebo as Dorabella and Jaroslav Břežina and Jiří Hajek as Ferrando and Guglielmo, respectively.

In Fajtová, the National Theater has a singer well-versed in Mozart's operas, and especially the role of Fiorgiligi. This is a good thing, considering the role is one of the most demanding soprano roles in Mozart's body of work, as she stays onstage for nearly the entire three-hour performance. Fajtová calls Cosi fan tutte "a cornerstone" in her wide repertoire. In 2008, she won first prize in the International Barbara Hendriks competition in Strasbourg singing a piece from the opera, which she has performed throughout the world.

Cosi fan tutte is opera buffa, comic opera, as anyone familiar with the story will know. The trickery involved between Guglielmo and Ferrando and Fiordiligi and Dorabella, is dastardly, despicable and downright hilarious. The comedic element helped make the opera an immediate success, though its popularity flagged for some time in the 20th century. But Fajtová says comedic operas are the most difficult to perform because comedy often entices singers into overacting.

"I think that to perform comedy in any opera is very difficult. But this difficulty is much bigger for stage directors who have to create comic situations than for us to act them. Nevertheless, for the singers, it means staying cool and not overacting even though the situation is sometimes very funny," she says.

Opera buffa is generally considered a low form of opera, and some critics, including Beethoven and Wagner, have lamented the fact Mozart's stunning music is tied to such a trivial story in Cosi fan tutte. But others, including Edward Said, see the opera as a distinctly late style work in Mozart's oeuvre, as it premiered the year before his death, and argue that the opera contains dark imitations of mortality and a glimpse at a world devoid of morals.

After a successful premiere in Vienna in 1790 and more than a decade of popularity, Cosi fan tutte fell into obscurity for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, as its subject matter was considered too risqué for refined tastes. According to scholar Dorothea Leonhart, the theme of opera, which suggests that women also have sexual desires and can be unfaithful in relationships, was too much for the rarified sensibilities of past centuries. In the second half of the 20th century, however, the opera again became the subject of regular performances. Fajtová, for one, is happy it is back.

"Thank goodness La scuola degli amanti [the school for lovers], which is the subtitle of this opera, is successfully back on the stage," she says. "So people can enjoy the music and the funny story as Mozart intended."

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com