Cosí fan tutte programme book 2023

showing me the ropes (helping me along with a few glances here and there) and
inspiring me to do better than I ever believed I could.
Although the music of Così fan tutte is sublime, the plot has divided opinions.
Some find it sexist, many find it implausible. The opera has caused a lot of
argument and directors have gone out of their way to present diverse points of
view, often inspired by the values of our time. Così is a robust opera and it can
take many different approaches.
I always find myself drawn to Mozart’s subtitle La scuola degli amanti – The school
for lovers. I think that, for both the men and the women in the opera, it is about an
opportunity for growing up and understanding the world in a more complex and
nuanced way. But, being an opera, things play out in a way that’s bigger, faster, more
dramatic and more heightened than in real life. And, of course, everyone in the
audience gets to grasp aspects of the plot in ways the characters themselves can’t.
We can see the issues arising and appreciate the inevitability of events. This can be
profoundly funny, amusing or disturbing. It’s impossible not to have a reaction.
I’m excited by the production choices of tonight’s creative team. Director Polly Graham
has chosen to set the opera in pre-revolutionary Ireland in an era that was both fertile
and febrile, where exceptional things could and did happen. Together with designer
Jamie Vartan, video designer Jack Phelan and lighting designer Sinéad McKenna,
she has created a world that is far from Mozart’s Vienna of 1790 where the opera
was premiered, but which serves as a brilliant context for Mozart’s inventiveness.
Irish National Opera’s chorus and orchestra are directed by the (drumroll...)
Olivier Award-winning conductor and INO Artistic Partner, Peter Whelan. I want
to give a special welcome also to INO’s resident conductor Elaine Kelly, fresh
back from triumph at LA Opera, who conducts three of the Dublin performances.
There’s lots to enjoy and definitely a few things to argue about in Mozart’s Così
fan tutte. I hope you’ll find the experience stimulating and rewarding.
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