Department of Music, Theatre and Dance performs Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte
For the first time in over a decade Oakland University’s Department of Music, Theatre and Dance performed an opera. The lapse ended this weekend with the departments’ rendition of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte.
Italian for “All Women are Like That,” or “The School for Lovers,” the show was chosen by its director, Dr. Drake Danzler, for its unique ability to appeal to general audiences.
“It’s fun to watch people enjoying opera because they never really expect themselves to,” said Constantine Novonty, junior and baritone vocal performance major who played the character Gugliemlo.
Mozart wrote Cose Fan Tutte when he was 12 years old on one of his several trips to Italy with his father. The demanding liberatto focuses on fidelity, questioning whether or not the main characters fiancés would remain faithful if they were called away.
Performances were held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, with an afternoon performance on Sunday. Each show featured a live orchestra and English translations of the
music numbers to aid the audience’s comprehension.
Amy Brooks, senior theatre design and technology major, and production stage manager of the play, stressed the extreme amount of hard work put forth by all those involved.
The show was double casted in order to provide equal opportunities to students. Also, students designed all costumes this past semester.
The most important part of the production of this show (and others like it) was the sitzprobe, or the synchronization of the vocalists and the orchestra, Brooks said.
“It transformed their voices,” she said. “The high sounds of the voices rose over the low sounds of the machines.”
Others had their own personal reasons for performing.
“I had to do it for Mozart,” Novonty said, citing the composer as one of his favorites. “It’s a long process, but it’s totally worth it.”
Although no dates have been set as of now, both Brooks and Novonty said they expect theUniversity to host the show again sometime in the near future.
Contact Staff Intern Jessica McLean via e-mail at [email protected]
