Opera is Hilarious
Those of us of the Looney Tunes generation (Elmer Fudd in a metal bustier singing “I’m going to kill the waaaabbitt”) have a hard time taking opera seriously. And that’s a good thing. Opera is like wine - it’s wonderful unless there’s some wine pedant around yapping on about “an oaky sheen” and “a florescent bouquet”.
Così fan tutte played in Vancouver last night - Mozart’s opera about - get this - two guys that make a bet that their girlfriends will never be unfaithful, then dress up as different guys and seduce each other’s girlfriends, thus losing the bet, their girlfriends (sort of), and their general happiness and well-being. The fact that they’ve cruelly deceived and manipulated their girlfriends is not an issue - “Così fan tutte”, all women are the same.
In addition to the comedy inherent in the plot (which was very well-played - where the production missed the mark was with the pathos), there is all the inherent operatic absurdity:
- the bug-eyed baritone: “must be suitably bug-eyed” is undoubtedly part of a baritone’s job description
- the impossibly poor stage acoustics: a tenor with a voice that can break wine-glasses sings little asides to the audience sitting in a vast concert hall; the soprano, standing ten feet away, doesn’t hear him
- the ease of disguise: this isn’t specifically an operatic trait; it’s the historical theatrical device whereby one can change one’s clothes (or don a tiny mask that covers one third of one’s face) and suddenly become a total stranger to one’s most intimate associates.
- if I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times: if it was worth singing once, it’s probably worth singing another seventeen times in a row.
Apparently, Mozart, ever incapable of meeting deadlines, was writing the end of the opera as the original company was rehearsing the beginning. He took a dislike to the soprano, so kept making her part harder and harder; she, to piss him off, refused to be vanquished. The result is an Olympian vocal role, with octave-and-a-half leaps - it’s weird and wonderful to hear a soprano growl.