Così Fan Muti, Part II: Kaiser Riccardo's Spring Tour '08 Is On @ Full Blast

A few nites ago, Opera Chic, flipping through the channels, found on Classica la Ceci singing Fiordiligi, and that's usually a treat (no we r not Ceci-haterZ @ all, hails naw, deal wit it). But then, OC immediately started to tinker with her plasma's audio settings, thinking something must have been off since the orchestra sound came out incredibly tinny, empty, flat. And soooooooo mortally slow.

Then the director cut to the orchestra pit and there he was, Niki Harnoncourt, and we then knew the audio settings were OK, as in fact they were. Opera's favorite taxidermist had gutted Così the same way he gutted Nozze @ Salzburg two years ago, and we have to say Così, usually three hour something, lasted about nine hours. Or so it felt.

So how we pined for some seriously awesome Mozart, airy and light and witty and FAST and crystal-clear the way Mozart-DaPonte has got to be. Riccardo Muti's Mozart, for example.

The music of chance actually decreed that, as we were suffering through Harnoncourt's reading of the score, Muti in the flesh was showing off his Wiener in Wien conducting Così Fan Tutte (in De Simone's staging) with a cast that made us tingle in all the right places: la Frittoline as Fiordiligi, Angelika Kirchschlager as Dorabella, Ildebrando d'Arcangelo as Guglielmo and Francesco Meli (la Fittolina's boi) as Ferrando.

Yeah, Muti is showing Vienna how it's done these days, exercising the usual ownage of the audience with standing Os, moshing, celebratory rounds of AK-47s ammo being shot during curtain calls, riots outside of the sold-out venue, standing room tickets being exchanged for newborn babies on the blak market, you know the drill.

And we so wish we were there, getting insulin shocks one after another in the inevitable marathon of Sachertorte eating, crossing the street from our hotel to the Staatsoper to check out Muti, la Frittolina, Angie, Brando and the rest of the gang.

Interestingly, Muti is about to launch a spring offensive of concerts, operas, tour, parties, and so forth: just back from the States where he conducted the NYPhil, he is now in Vienna for Così, on March 8 he'll conduct his wonder kids of Orchestra Cherubini in Vienna for Don Pasquale (been there done that), in April he'll go on tour with the Wiener, and in May he'll introduce at the Whitsun Festival in Salzburg Paisiello's Il Matrimonio Inaspettato. On May 17 and 18, on to Florence to celebrate in two concerts the 40th anniversary of his debut with the Maggio Musicale orchestra.

Good to see that there's a lot of life outside of la Scala. It's always healthy to remember that.

Comments

[Mike Glendinning]

Indeed, OC, Muti's Cosi fan tutte "Musikalische Neuinstudierung" in Vienna was excellent last Friday. How could one miss the combination of Frittoli and Kirchschlager?

As you say, the light forces and transparent orchestral texture means that the voices (and music!) come across very well, at least from my seat at the front of the Parterre Loge. Only the Despina of Laura Tatulescu and the Don Alfonso of Natale De Carolis (particularly) were somewhat disappointing.

And I'm sure I spotted Muti taking some time wandering round the Belvedere in front of me on Saturday morning.

A delayed return flight and a hassle with airport security meant that I only just made it back to the Wigmore Hall in London in time for Susan Graham's recital on Saturday (also excellent). Phew!

[Pier Luigi Itsybitsy]

WHAT??
Muti has to conduct at the Wiener Staatsoper - which is, as someone once argued, not a top tier house, but a provincial theater?
Omg, I'm shocked! There must be a conspiracy behind that!
A similar fate: poor Mehta. On Sunday they forced him to conduct "Aida" at the Staatsoper, and on March 1 he has to do the new production of "La forza del destino"...
I think I need to go to rehab to recover...

Btw, I enjoy both Muti and Harnoncourt doing Mozart. They're brilliant conductors. Their approach to Mozart is obviously different, and I like diversity.

[Miss Johnson From London]

Dear Opera Chic--

Not GBS, not Virgil Thomson, not William J. Henderson or any
other first rate writer about music has surpassed your neutron-
splitting dead center of the bull's eye which is the laying out
in lavender of Harnoncourt as "Opera's favorite taxidermist."
I doff my tiara to you and offer up three cheers!

Keep the dazzle spigot turned all the way on!

Love,
Miss Johnson From London

[MalcautoVegliardo]

Love ya to bits OC! (even if you are too much of a mutiana for my taste). Just one tiny correction: il boi of our beloved Frittolina is not Francesco Meli, but Natale De Carolis, the Alfonso. Meli's girl is also a soprano, but another one.