Opera Theater opens with 'Cosi fan tutte'

For the last month, director Tomer Zvulun and his cast have been rehearsing five hours a day, six days a week to make the opening of the IU Opera Theater season worth remembering.

The IU Opera Theater will open with W. A. Mozart’s “Cosí fan tutte,” a comedy about two couples and their quest for fidelity.

Zvulun teamed with conductor Arthur Fagen and reunited for the third time with set and costume designer David Higgins for this year’s production.

Just like Zvulun’s work in “The Magic Flute” and “Faust,” “Cosí fan tutte” has an unusual adaptation. The production is traditionally set in 18th-century Vienna. However, Zvulan chose to change the setting to a luxurious hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., during the late 19th century.

“We wanted to bring the action to a period and place that will be recognizable to American audience but yet won’t be completely modern,” Zvulun said. “So we updated the plot into a century after Mozart wrote the opera and a century before our time.”

The story centers around two engaged couples who seem to be in love. Ferrando and Guglielmo express with certainty that their fiancés, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, will be eternally faithful to them. When an old man, Don Alfonso, insists that women are fickle, the men wager that their fiancés will remain loyal even if another lover comes their way. In the light of the bet, the two men pretend to be called off to war and return in disguises in order to pursue each other’s fiancé.

The story unfolds as the women actually fall for the other man with the help of Don Alfonso and the maid, Despina.

According to Zvulun, one aspect about Cosí that sets itself apart from the other operas is that instead of the theatricality, special effects and adventure that fill other operas he has worked with, Cosí is a piece about relationships and people discovering certain truths as they grow up and mature.

“To me, Cosí has some of the most elegant music that Mozart ever wrote for the operatic stage, and as I listen to it, the images that come to mind are those of the most gorgeous, luxurious surroundings in a sunny, relaxed paradise,” Zvulun said. “A true heaven on earth that is about to be shattered by a silly bet that will change the life of the players forever.”

Doctoral student Meghan Dewald, who plays the role of Fiordiligi, said the genius of the production is that the characters are human.

“As a woman playing one of these characters, I have to view the story from this angle,” Dewald said. “Otherwise, it’s easy to just assume the women are stupid and play my character as such. But she’s real, and it’s my job to show that she’s real.”

Dewald said she feels the modern audience will be more understanding to the lessons “Cosí” delivers.

“I don’t know if the lesson is as overt as the title proclaims (‘all women are like that’), but I do know that we are trying to play the story as honestly as possible, with all the joys and doubts and fears that love can bring,” Dewald said.

Zachary Coates, a master’s student of music who plays the role of Guglielmo, said it is challenging playing a character who fools the woman he loves.

“I don’t believe that he is malicious, but I find it hard to believe that he would be stupid enough to not realize what he’s getting himself into,” Coates said. “There still has to be something driving him through the action in the opera, and that is a tough motivation to pin down.”

Even though it is difficult to play a complex character, Coates said being a member of the Cosí cast fulfills a dream of his.

“The characters can be perceived on a broad spectrum with goofily inept on one end to disturbingly masochistic on the other,” he said. “Every production finds different points on that spectrum to highlight, and it’s always incredible to be involved in a production with such a wide range of possibilities.”

All in all, the cast and crew have high hopes for the audience’s reaction.

“Both productions that I did here previously were set in an unusual way,” Zvulun said. “The bold, conceptual ‘Faust’ that we did here in February as well as the whimsical, puppet-filled ‘Magic Flute’ that we created the season before were both loved by the audience and the critics, despite the fact that we had a completely different approach. I hope that the third one will be just as successful. Mozart is one of my favorite composers, and I hope we represent him and his music well with this show.”