The Mozart Project: Così fan tutte

"Boys versus girls in the World Series of love."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Continuing our proud tradition of graphics that have little to do with Mozart,
here's Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in A League of Their Own.
Image © 1992 Touchstone Pictures/The Walt Disney Company.

Cosí fan tutte  is the last of the three operas Mozart wrote in close collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. But unlike their preceding collaborations, this opera is an original story by da Ponte, its impetus coming from a phrase in their earlier Le Nozze di Figaro. The title translates loosely as "Women are like that." It comes from the longer phrase "Così fan tutte la belle", uttered by the sarcastic Don Basilio in that earlier opera. Unfortunatly for Mozart and Da Ponte, the death of Emperor Joseph II squashed enthusiasm for their new opera in Vienna, and it closed after only five performances.

The Mozart Project: Don Giovanni

Comedy and terror walk side by side in Mozart's dramma giocoso.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The statue of the Commendatore (voice of John Tomlinson) makes his entrance in Don Giovanni as staged
by Twyla Tharp in the film Amadeus. Image © 1984 The Saul Zaentz Company.

For many writers, musicians and composers of the 19th century, Mozart's opera Don Giovanni stood at the very top of the operatic pyramid. It is amusing, terrifying, sexy, and deeply human. And it is unique among operas for its approach: rollicking comedy that is interrupted by the interference of a higher power, set to the scariest music that Mozart ever wrote.

The Wagner Project: Götterdämmerung

The Ring comes full circle.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Act II Scene II of Götterdämmerung as staged by the Mariinsky Theater.
That's Hagen standing on top of the Gibichung Hall. Photo by V. Baranovsky.

Twenty-two years after starting work on  his mammoth four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, Richard Wagner wound up right back where he started with Götterdämmerung. The last opera of the cycle tells the story he wanted to tell in the first place: the death of the hero Siegfried and the redemption of the world by the heroine Brunnhilde. Except now the ending was different.

The Wagner Project: Die Walküre

The second chapter of the Ring remains its most familiar.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

James Morris (standing) as Wotan in the final scene from Die Walküre. 
Jane Eaglen (lying prone) is Brunnhilde.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 2004 The Metropolitan Opera.

This is the opera people think of when they think of Wagner. The Ride of the Valkyries. The Magic Fire scene. Thick orchestrations. Pulse-pounding passions. And some of the composer's best and most enduring music. There's nothing quite like Die Walküre. On a good night (or in a good recording) this is a four hour story that unfolds with the pace of a breakneck car chase--one involving flying horses.

Superconductor Audio Guide: Lohengrin

Wagner's medieval legend redefines the words "dream boat."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

He who must not be named: Ben Heppner (center) as the swan knight Lohengrin
(oops) in the Metropolitan Opera's 1998 production by Robert Wilson.
Photo by Marty Sohl © 1998 The Metropolitan Opera.

Would you marry a man who saved your life even if you did not know his name and were forbidden to ask? Richard Wagner's sixth opera Lohengrin is a test of faith for its heroine Elsa von Brabant and for the listener, who  is confronted by the composer's distinct style in the grandest manner possible.

Recordings Review: Finally Uncorked!

Glyndebourne releases a classic L'Elisir d'Amore.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Sometimes a fine wine must remain in the cask before its full body and rich accents can be sampled and savored. This superb live recording of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, bottled at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1962, remained unreleased until 2009.