The Inca's Principal Theatre hosts the most innovative version of 'Così fan tutte'

Palm“I am on the threshold of fullness”, Mozart wrote in a letter in 1790, the same year as the premiere of Così fan tutte, or La scuola degli amanti. Christoph Wolff picks it up in his essay and makes it the title of the book that, translated by Ramón Andrés, Acantilado published. He recounts, among many other things, that the libretto Da Ponte presented to Mozart bore the title that became the subtitle, but Mozart found the one we all know more suitable, for musical reasons, and surely for others. It should be said that Da Ponte never acknowledged the name by which he has gone down in history and in his Memoirs, only mentioning it once in a small paragraph, where he recounts writing 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 xifra, 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 a word more. It is clear that the interpretation of the work between one and the other was conceptually very different, at least with regard to the title. Mozart, for his part, gave prominence to female behavior, while DaPonte sought, and found, a philosophical and groundbreaking reading, as well as much more elaborate and profound.

On Saturday and Sunday we can see it at the Principal Theatre of Inca, in a staged version and according to Miquel Àngel Raió's proposal, 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 also presents an absolutely antagonistic approach to the traditional one, a revision with a contemporary gaze 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 Theatre 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 device to change the location of the action. On the other hand, the action unfolds with costume changes in view of the public, "showing its gears". A great challenge that demonstrates how and where the Principal Theatre of Inca is growing.

The program states: "The scenic proposal wants to open questions rather than give 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 great timeless themes: love as a game, as a mystery, and as a mirror of our human condition." Quite explicit, this decologue 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 of day and find its footing, we have done in just ten days”. “It has been a pleasure to study and interpret a mature work by Mozart, in which each musical moment contains a great narrative load. Surely a more solid piece musically and structurally 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 an additional effort that, for sure, has its reward, such as, for the moment, being able to program it two days in a row.

One of the most interesting characters among the six who star in the opera is, without a doubt, Despina, the maid of Fiordiligi and Dorabella, the two young ladies who fall into the trap cunningly devised by Don Alfonso, and who is played by Irene Mas. She defines it as “very interesting, very real, who undergoes a suggestive process of transformation during the opera, which makes entering it a pleasure 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”.