'Thus do they all' love 'Cosi fan tutte'
Teresa Sheffield
Issue date: 2/23/09 Section: Culture
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Last weekend, the conservatory put on the opera "Cosi fan tutte" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The opera is set in Naples, Italy in the early 19th century. The plot revolves around a bet two officers, Ferrando and Gugielmo (Robin Griffeath and Jonathan Stinson) make with their friend Don Alfonso (Matthew Scrivner) that their finances Fiordiligi and Dorabella (played by Alyssa Nance and Jenifer Rose Weber) will remain faithful to them no matter what.
To prove the young officers wrong, Don Alfonso has them pretend to be sent off to war, and then secretly come back dressed up as Albanians to seduce each others girl. He enlists the help of a sassy and smart young servant named Despina (Julie Wyma) to make this happen.
At first the two women stand firm and don't waiver in their faithfulness to their fiances, but after awhile they begin to break down a bit. In the end, to the heartbreak of the officers, the two women fall in love with the Albanians and try to marry them.
The officers finally come clean with their plot and instead of everyone getting mad at each other, they resign to the fact that "Cosi fan tutte" or "Thus do they all."
It was a great production of a well-known opera.
"I thought everybody did their best," Nance said. "All of the hard work of the past few months finally paid off."
The students have been rehearsing since almost the beginning of the year.
"It went really, really well," Stinson said. "It changes the dynamic of a show to have an audience. When you rehearse and when you perform it are just completely different."
It was definitely ladies night at the opera, because the women in the cast outshone the men.
Nance deserves an entire paragraph, maybe two. She was amazing. This is her first production at UMKC, and she definitely made a great first impression. The breakdown of her voice is that it's huge, controlled and has a sweet and rich tone. Her voice filled the whole theater when others couldn't. She sang her best of an aria "Come Scoglio" (Like a Rock) with such ease and vocal prowess.
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