Viva Mozart!

I got back from my adventures in Poland on Monday evening (late, thank you sooooo much Messrs Flybe and Loganair) and was exhausted. So I was not thrilled to be reminded that on Tuesday evening we had tickets for the Scottish Opera touring production of Cosi Fan Tutte.

These tours go all round Scotland and they perform in an amazing variety of places, and money is limited of course so they are piano accompanied only and with minimum sets and scenery. I've never  been a fan of piano only opera and really the last thing I wanted to  do on Tuesday evening was drag myself off to Kirkwall, but you know how it goes, the tickets weren't cheap, we really should turn out to support SO etc etc So we went.

 

And it was fantastic.

 

It was really well scored so that I hardly missed the orchestra. It was sung in a witty English translation, the cast were really good, the pianist was brilliant, you could hear every word - what more could you want?

 

Actually what I could want is an audience that doesn't come out all giving off the opinion that 'it's a silly story but the music is wonderful'. The story of Cosi is not silly; it's dark, sadistic and deeply misogynistic, and not just as a reflection of the times Da Ponte and Mozart lived. It has more relevance to male/female relationships today than I am happy with: given that we are all supposed to be equal these days it's sobering to be brought up against a realisation that actually not a lot has changed in the way men work the world and bend everything to their will.

 

Having said that though, the music is wonderful and however tired I was when I went in I was a lot less tired when I came out.

 

The OH has been nattering me since I got back to update the blog and I know I've fallen very behind. But I have been very very tired.I hope to start catching up tomorrow. But don't hold your collective breaths.