New England Entertainment Digest - Online
Brought to you by JAC Publishing & Promotions - Serving New England Since 1979!

Boston Midsummer Opera Presents Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte

BOSTON, MA: Boston area audiences will experience a timeless Mozart masterpiece when Boston Midsummer Opera (BMO) presents their summer 2009 production, Cosi Fan Tutte. Playing at the Tsai Performance Center at Boston University for three performances only, August 5, 7 and 9, this modern adaptation of Mozart’s popular opera about contradictions of the heart features today’s rising stars. Sung in English and performed with a full orchestra, the fully staged and costumed production is conducted by the nationally acclaimed and Boston favorite Susan Davenny-Wyner.

Mozart’s final collaboration with librettist Lorenzo DaPonte, Cosi Fan Tutte premiered in Vienna in 1790. BMO Artistic Director Drew Minter first gave his successful translation and adaptation of the profound comedy for the company Opera Aperta in Boston in 2000, in a critically acclaimed production that was popular with audiences, selling out after the opening performance. Minter’s updated vision of the piece places the action in a country club on the Connecticut coast near New London. The two male protagonists are graduates of the sub base, and their girlfriends are wealthy coeds on summer vacation from their Seven Sisters schools. Despina, the lady’s maid in Mozart’s original, serves as the tennis club’s snack bar attendant, and the men’s older friend Alfonso is a tennis player in the club. Since his production nine years ago, Minter has made updates with a new and improved translation, keeping DaPonte’s rhyme schemes for the most part, but translating them to current style American English. The Boston Globe review of the 2000 production praised Drew Minter’s “brilliant translation” saying he was “more accurate than most translators; there are frequently appropriate touches of racy colloquialism… it was frankly a thrill to be in an audience that was responding to what was actually being sung, rather than to mistimed surtitles.”

The cast of Boston Midsummer Opera’s Cosi Fan Tutte features six young, vital opera singers, including soloists who successfully participated in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Program for young Artists: sopranos Vira Slylowtsky as Fiordiligi and Sarah Heaton as Despina, mezzo-soprano Megan Roth as Dorabella, tenor Darren Anderson (returning to BMO after last summer’s performance as Don José with the company) as Ferrando, baritone David McFerrin as Guglielmo, and bass-baritone Eric Downs as Alfonso.

Having debuted in the summer of 2006, Boston Midsummer Opera has set its sights on presenting entertaining, accessible visions of opera performed at a high level and at a reasonable price. BMO's talented young singers act their parts in savvy English translations to the delight of audience members young and old. In 2008, BMO presented its first full opera rather than scenes from various operas, as were presented in previous years. The production was Peter Brook's The Tragedy of Carmen, a gripping adaptation of Georges Bizet's famous late-19th century opera. Like the upcoming production, Artistic Director Drew Minter was joined by Music Director Susan Davenny-Wyner, who conducted.

Soprano Vira Slywotzky (Fiordiligi), a native of Cambridge, MA, is currently a member of the Seattle Opera Young Artists program and has performed with the Opera Company of the Highlands and with Chautauqua Opera. In 2008, Slywotzky became the new soprano of Mirror Visions Ensemble, a vocal trio whose founder, Tobe Malawista, was recently named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by President Sarkozy. In 2008, Ms. Slywotzky was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Soprano Sara Heaton (Despina) recently debuted with Boston Lyric Opera in Rusalka and this season will be seen in The Bartered Bride with Opera Boston. She has appeared with Boston Baroque, Opera Providence and Central City Opera, where she was awarded the Shoshana Foundation’s Richard F. Gold Career Grant for promising young singers. She was a New England regional finalist in the 2008 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Mezzo-soprano Megan Roth (Dorabella) has performed with the American Repertory Theatre, Opera Boston, and Boston Baroque. In the 2007-2008 season, Ms. Roth performed with Opera Boston in the Boston premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, under the direction of Peter Sellars and Robert Castro. She then went on to cover roles in Handel’s Semele, in a collaborative production between Boston Baroque and Opera Boston. Tenor Darren Anderson (Ferrando) sings lead tenor roles throughout the United States and Canada. He has made debuts with Syracuse Opera, Connecticut Concert Opera, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Glimmerglass Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera. He has also performed with Granite State Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, the Opera Institute at BU, and the Olney Theater in Maryland. In addition, he joined the roster of New York City Opera to cover roles in Il viaggio a Reims and The Little Prince. Baritone David McFerrin (Guglielmo) has sung with some of the country’s leading opera companies and is a critically acclaimed performer of concert and recital repertoire. Recent operatic performances have included Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Miami’s Seraphic Fire and the New York premiere of Ned Rorem’s Our Town with the Juilliard Opera Center. He has been a regional finalist the past two years in the Metropolitan Opera National Council competition, recently placing second in the New England Region. Bass-Baritone Eric Downs (Alfonso) has performed as Colline in La bohème, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, and as Kuligin in Janácek's Kát'a Kabanová with Yale Opera where he recently received his artist diploma. Also with Yale Opera and Orchestra Verdi Milano he has appeared in Trouble in Tahiti, Cimarosa's Le disavventure teatrali, L'Enfant et les sortilèges, Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Artistic Director Drew Minter has been an internationally known countertenor for over two decades, during which he has sung leading roles in opera houses worldwide. In 1995 he was asked to direct opera for the first time, Handel’s Radamisto at the Goettingen Festival, and since then he has directed productions for the Boston Early Music Festival, Opera Aperta, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston University’s Opera Institute, Amherst Early Music Institute, among others. Conductor Susan Davenny-Wyner has been Music Director and Conductor of The Warren Philharmonic Orchestra near Cleveland, Ohio since 1999 and from 1999-2005 she was Music Director and Conductor of The New England String Ensemble in Boston, a professional string orchestra that she brought to national prominence. The design team for Cosi Fan Tutte includes Jeremy Barnett (sets), Nicole Moody (costumes), and Chris Brusberg (lights).

Founded in 2006, Boston Midsummer Opera was conceived after founders Ernie Klein and Pauline Ho Bynum were present at the Met Opera House in spring of 1999 when all three New England Winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions were chosen as National Grand Winners. Ernie, whose grandfather was the Director and Finance Chairman for Prague Opera, and Pauline, the New England Regional Chairman for the Metropolitan National Council Auditions since 1984, who is always seeking opportunities for New England winners to sing in the Boston area, joined with Drew Minter the following summer. A life-long opera devotee, BMO Executive Director and Chairman Ernie Klein was the co-founder of the Opera Galas in conjunction with Pauline Ho Bynum and Monadnock Music. He serves on the New England Regional committee of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was a partner of Wilmer Hale. An avid opera fan since her years in New York, BMO Founding Director Pauline Ho Bynum has served as an Overseer for Boston Lyric Opera and New England Conservatory of Music.

Performances of Cosi Fan Tutte are Wednesday, August 5 and Friday, August 7 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, August 9 at 3 p.m. at the Tsai Performance Center at Boston University, 685 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Tickets, priced at $50.00 to $20.00 (plus a $5.00 handling fee per ticket order) for all performances, are available by calling 617-227-0442, online at www.bostonmidsummeropera.org,  or by mailing a request to Boston Midsummer Opera, Box 513, 66 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114.

For more information, visit www.bostonmidsummeropera.org.