Yes, Fine, There Were Fat Ladies Singing

[masterofmidgets]

So, I went to the opera last night, and saw Cosi Fan Tutte. It was...okay, transcendent is probably an exaggeration. Turandot was transcendent. Madama Butterfly was transcendent. This was...exquisite. Delightful. Lovely. Amazing, incredible, beautiful, but probably not life changing. The music kicked ass, all the singers were brilliant, but it's still a comic opera, and while I like comic opera, I am still a complete and utter sap. I love romance and tragedy and melodrama and absurdly long suicide scenes. What can I say? Probably my favorite part was the aria Fiordigli sings in the second act, when she realizes she is starting to fall in love with the Albanian, and begs forgiveness from her (absent) fiance. It's very slow and sad and heartfelt. See how I managed to find the only bit of melodrama in a silly bit of Mozart? I'm incorrigible.

The only thing I really didn't like was the staging and costuming - they set it up as some sort of weird modernish thing - I'd say about 1900, and that just didn't work for me. I thought it really took away from the performance to do that. It's really a story that only works in the time it was set in, even if the general meaning is rather timeless. I want to see it as a period piece now.

All in all, though, it was a great experience, and now I want to go on limewire and try to find some opera.