Overlooked Mozart opera opens

Guest conductor Randall Behr passed away unexpectedly at a Bloomington hotel Sept. 8, but his legacy lives on as Mozart's "Così Fan Tutte" comes to the IU stage.\nDoctoral Student Andrew Altenbach was chosen to replace Behr because the two worked very closely during the summer. Altenbach served as Behr's assistant at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, Calif., where they worked on "Così Fan Tutte" together.\n"I was chosen because I know how (Behr) does the show more than anyone else," Altenbach said. "It is the greatest way I can memorialize him."\nPart of what endeared Altenbach to Behr was the latter's enthusiasm for working with students.\n"(Behr) was a big proponent of student involvement," Altenbach said.\nAltenbach said his own role as a student conductor reflects Behr's ambitions to educate and involve students. He is the first student in the history of the IU Opera Theater to take over a production.\nAltenbach also spoke about how Behr built up trust with the cast members. Carol Dusdieker, who plays Fiordiligi in the opera, spoke about her experience with Behr.\n"It was difficult to lose him," Dusdieker said. "Behr loved being a teacher and working with students. It wasn't about being right or wrong, but about making the best music. His main purpose was to educate and improve the next generation of opera singers."\nIU stage director Vince Liotta, who worked with Behr for more than 30 years, said the successful presentation of "Così Fan Tutte" depends on Behr's love and vision for the opera.\n"This production wouldn't be what it is without (Behr's) love for 'Così,'" Liotta said. "He continued to work to prove that 'Così' is a great opera."\nLiotta explained that of the three Mozart operas that use Lorenzo DaPonte's libretti, "Così Fan Tutte" has been regarded as lesser than "Don Giovanni" and "The Marriage of Figaro."\n"'Così' is really a very well-written play set to music," Liotta said. "It has often been treated as the red-headed stepchild of Mozart's DaPonte operas, but it is really worthy of the others."\nLiotta said that one reason why the opera is not as fully appreciated as it should be is that many productions cut portions of the opera.\n"We take less cuts, and the play makes more sense that way," he said. "You wouldn't put on a production of 'Hamlet' and cut out the third act."\nLiotta's treatment of the characters also breaks from the common production method.\n"It's most common to treat the characters as one-dimensional, commedia dell'arte-style figures," he said. "I take a more human rather than a more farcical approach."\nLiotta said another aspect of the opera's underappreciation is the treatment it gets through the production process.\n"The typical synopsis states that Alfonso bets that all girls are unfaithful and the girls prove him right," Liotta said. "But he also asks the guys if they're sure they won't do it, either. The true message is that everyone is unfaithful, or simply change their minds." \nLiotta also stated that the subtitle, "The School for Lovers," implies that the audience is supposed to learn something from the experience.\nDusdieker said that the opera deals with a question relevant to everyone: can someone love two people at once?\n"It offers a heartfelt peek into the ways of love," she said.\nDusdieker also encouraged the audience members to engage themselves in the story.\n"I want the audience to fall into the plot, sit and enjoy it as much as the singers and the pit players do," she said.