The Inca's Principal Theater hosts the most innovative version of 'Cosi fan tutte'

Palm“I am on the threshold of fulfillment”, Mozart wrote in a letter in the year 1790, the same year as the premiere of Cosi fan tutte, or rather La scuola degli amanti. Christoph Wolff picks it up in his essay and makes it the title of the book which, translated by Ramón Andrés, was published by Acantilado. He tells, among many other things, that the libretto Da Ponte presented to Mozart bore the title that remained as the subtitle, but Mozart found more appropriate, for musical reasons, and surely some others, the one we all know. To wit, Da Ponte never acknowledged the name by which it has gone down in history and in his Memoirs; he only mentions it once in a small paragraph, where he recounts that he wrote a third piece for a singer, whom he does not name, but it was Adriana del Bene, known as La Ferrarese, his lover at the time. They were El pastor Fido and La cifra, by Salieri, and La scuola degli amanti, by Mozart, “which occupies third place among the sisters born of this most celebrated father of harmony”. Not another word. It is clear that the interpretation of the work between one and the other was conceptually very different, at least as far as the title is concerned. Mozart, for his part, gave prominence to female behavior, while Da Ponte sought, and found, a philosophical and groundbreaking reading, as well as much more elaborate and profound.

On Saturday and Sunday we will be able to see it at the Principal Theatre of Inca, in a staged version and according to the proposal of Miquel Àngel Raió, with Bernat Quetglas at the baton, conducting the Orquestra de Cambra de Mallorca and performed by Natàlia Salom, Mar Esteve i Rodrigo, Irene Mas, Sebastià Serra, Víctor Jiménez and Jorge Tello. Raió did not want to be outdone and not only changed the subtitle, which has become As They All Do or The School of Shame, but he makes an absolutely antagonistic approach to the traditional one, a revision with a contemporary look that allows for a rereading of the plot, especially regarding the role of the protagonists.

Show gears

If until now the operas of each season of the OCM and the Principal Theater of Inca were almost staged but without sets, for the occasion they have taken a step forward with a sustainable and recyclable approach and format, where students from Adema, based in Inca, have participated, with projections by Raió himself as a tool to change the location of the action. On the other hand, the action unfolds with costume changes in full view of the audience, "showing its gears." A major challenge that demonstrates how and where the Principal Theater of Inca is growing.

The program notes read: "The scenic proposal aims to raise questions rather than provide answers. How far can we control what we feel? To what extent are we true to ourselves? And what does a society that needs to put love to the test say about us? Così fan tutte speaks to us – with clear irony – about one of the perennial great themes: love as a game, as a mystery, and as a mirror of our human condition." Quite explicit, this decalogue of intentions and declaration of principles.

An express production

Bernat Quetglas says it is an express production. “What normally takes a month to see the light and find its place, we have done in just ten days”. “It has been a pleasure to study and interpret a mature work by Mozart, where each musical moment contains a great narrative load. Surely a musically and structurally more solid piece than The Marriage of Figaro”, the first collaboration between Da Ponte and Mozart. Of course, he also acknowledges that the effort to take this step further has required and demanded additional effort that will surely pay off, such as, for now, being able to program it two days in a row.

One of the most interesting characters among the six protagonists of the opera is undoubtedly Despina, the maid of Fiordiligi and Dorabella, the two young ladies who fall into the trap woven by Don Alfonso, and who is interpreted by Irene Mas. She defines her as “very interesting, very real, who undergoes a suggestive process of transformation during the opera, which makes entering it a joy and a puzzle, although I feel sorry that she is also deceived. When you have covered and understood all her layers, you are left with the task of understanding others from the point of view of what you have already achieved”. With a tone of satisfaction, she describes it “as a stimulating job, where Raió has changed his usual register, while Cecilia Ligorio, the assistant director, has very effectively contributed the way of delivering the recitatives, and thus being able to understand them with all the intention and scope, because it is here where the crux of the argument lies, rounded off by music that ensures nothing escapes, that explains everything”.