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Mozart, Così fan tutte :  New production by Abbas Kzarostami, Soloists, chorus and orchestra of Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Christophe Rousset conductor, Théâtre de l'Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France. 16.7.2008 (MM)


Mozart's Zaide had been performed the previous evening in the acoustically excellent, outdoor Théatre de l'Archeveché, as was this Così.  The Zaide was a 2006 production from the Wiener Festwochen and New York's Lincoln Center, and was presented by the Aix Festival as an obvious masterpiece of mise en scène.  Therefore critical discussion of this brilliant Peter Sellars production was limited and finally trivial, and at the same time the audience response was enthusiastic, something all too rare in Aix. 

There was excited anticipation however, surrounding Aix's current attempt at staging Così fan tutte, in a production by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kzarostami:   that Mr. Kzarostami's films often include scenes in the back seats of cars seemed a fine preparation for a racy take on this difficult-to-stage opera.  Così  often defeats even real opera metteurs en scène, raising the question of why such a problematic task was given to a filmmaker who had never staged on opera before: a question obliquely illuminated by the counter question of why opera directors are never asked to make films.

At first there seemed to be a payoff as film -  meaning moving picture  images (movies) - filled the full stage backdrop, initially a cafe full of voyeurs to Cosi's wager, offering the intriguing idea that this public might later be peeking into  cars.  The second, and prevailing backdrop was the hypnotic wave action of the waters of the Bay of Naples.  Though after awhile a boat appeared on its horizon, slowly making its way forward, then retreating, charmingly creating the opera's departure deception.

 

The constant movement of the images-  the small physical movements of the cafe patrons in the brief first scene and the constant motion  of waves- encouraged the heightened musical level that had begun with the overture (gratefully un-staged), its detailed woodwinds cannily stating the sly, maybe cruel humor of this Mozart masterpiece.The insightful conducting of Christophe Rousset infused the fine Salzburg Camerata with fleetness and detail.

The last twenty minutes saw filmmaker Kiarostami's third set of moving images.  This time the backdrop was of the Salzburg Camerata and maestro Rousset in full concert regalia, mutely holding forth in more or less unison with the actual Salzburg Camerata musical rendition of this scene live from Archevêché pit   It was some slight relief to have something to think about, like what possible dramatic reason there could be for the pit orchestra to suddenly become the backdrop of this truly inept production.
 

Maestro Rousset revealed himself to be the early music musician of his program booklet biography, evoking an unvarying cuteness of style that cannot sustain an extended evening.  The Rousset tempi were those common to early music, toe-tappingly quick in the ensembles when not excruciatingly slow in the arias.  The Aix Festival assembled a young cast of which only the Guglielmo of Edwin Crosslry-Mercer had the physical vitality to match the hyperventilation emanating from the pit.  The small voice of tenor Finnur Bjarnason was mismatched to his larger voiced amorous competitors; the Fiordiligi of poker faced Sofia Solovzy offered a few ultra-italianate tones from time to time; the gangly Dorabella of Janja Vuletic was at odds with the idea of an upcoming Carmen her program booklet biography announced. 
 

Don Alfonso seemed lost in his own thoughts while on stage, noticeably limping when taking his bow, and supporting himself on the back of a chair while the others took their bows, a mystery if this comportment were his character or a sudden illness.  Kzarostami's Despina was charmless, no fault of Judith van Wanroij in the most solid vocal performance of this helpless evening.

Because of its juxtaposition to the Peter Sellars production the night before, this Kzarostami Cosi was placed in direct contrast to the politicized stagings of Mr. Sellars' Mozart, be it the famous 1980 (or so) setting of Cosi fan tutte in a diner [a sort of simple American brasserie] or this Zaide set in an anywhere sweatshop, controversial antiwar statements replaced by the universal, unarguable anti-slavery sentiments we all share.

Peter Sellars is now too old to be a wunderkind, though this Zaide proves that he is, but in full operatic maturity.   The interesting if sometimes barely adequate young American singers of his late twentieth century Mozart trilogy mounted in rural upstate New York have been replaced by graduates of San Francisco Opera and the Met's young singer programs, and here in Aix a Viennese trained Russian soprano thrown in as well.  If nothing else these young artists have major voices and impeccable training.  Not to mention that the scrappy trilogy orchestras are now real orchestras with real conducting, here New York's Mostly Mozart conductor Louis Langrée and the Salzburg Camerata.

What has not changed is Sellars' idea that these artists, and in fact Mozart's operas, are simply people who sing, who above all else possess simple, human realities.  This provokes acting that seems like anti-acting, and often leads Sellars to champion humble minority classes, thrust into high theatrical relief because of their non-European skin tones.  New are the repetitive, sometimes ritualistic motions that mercilessly grind in elevated emotion, and sometimes unite his characters in common philosophical aspiration.  New too is his expressive exploitation of time in long spells of silence or long sections of aimless music, here some incidental music Mozart turned out for a random theater evening in Vienna (not every Mozart note is a masterpiece).

With these fragments of an opera that Mozart never finished Sellars made a dramatic whole, adding only an eloquent sheet metal back wall that sounded loudly throughout the evening.  Sellars ended where Mozart stopped, in full tragic circumstance with no resolution.  Though there was hope of redemption as golden light flooded up the back wall through the metal grills of the multi-level prison floors.

The Aix Festival was founded sixty-one years ago, its first production was Mozart's Così fan tutte.  The Mozart operas, much loved by the enlightened French public, have remained central to its repertory.  In recent years Aix has insisted on entrusting these masterpieces to puppeteers, filmmakers and theater directors who have little feeling for or understanding of opera.  The results, uniformly dismal, have not breathed new life into this old art form but have made it theatrically more distant, and finally more boring than ever before. 

Photos copyright Elisabeth Carecchio

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