Così Fan Tutte

Featuring:

Myramae Meneses as Fiordiligi

Iona Ventocilla as Dorabella

Ivan Nery as Ferrando

Carlo Falcis as Guglielmo

Ralph Perez as Don Alfonso

Kristine Balingcos as Despina

Manila Symphony Orchestra

Arturo Molina, conductor

Despite being an avid listener of numerous arias for the soprano, I've never seen an actual opera before. I’ve always wanted to see one but circumstances always led to one thing or another and I always ended up missing whatever opera that was staged. Finally, I was able to see one when St. Scholastica’s College School of Music, along with the Manila Symphony Orchestra staged Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte.

I admit that I wasn’t prepared for this since I’ve always imagined that my first opera experience would be something by Puccini whose music I truly love and not something by Mozart. Although I know the synopsis of Così Fan Tutte because of Nodame Cantabile, I can’t even name an aria or any piece of music from this opera. I am not even familiar with how the overture goes. So the anticipation that I thought that I would feel was replaced with some uncertainty and anxiety since I know almost next to nothing regarding this work. Thankfully, this production, directed by McDo Bolanos made it easy for someone like me to get into it.

Considering that this was also the first foray of St. Scholastica’s College and the Manila Symphony Orchestra in mounting an opera, they decided not to go full blast with a lavish production. They instead opted for a more intimate staging at the St. Cecilia’s Hall, with only the core characters and also by having the recitatives in Filipino. This might not sit well with purists but for someone like me, this was perfectly fine. At least, there’s the MSO conducted by Arturo Molina providing the live music accompaniment. They can take away the grand sets and costumes, but never take away the live music as I say. But I do admit that I wished at one point that there was a full chorus singing their hearts out in this production.

While there was no chorus, there was NAMCYA winner Myramae Meneses as Fiordiligi and I think that she really stood out in this production. Her acting left me a bit unconvinced but her vocals were absolutely divine. Iona Ventocilla as Dorabella had some nice moments especially with her duet with Meneses. Ivan Nery and Carlo Falcis as Ferrando and Guglielmo provided the comic relief as the male leads. But in terms of comedy, the scene stealer was definitely Kristine Balingcos as Despina, the accomplice of the scheming Don Alfonso played by Ralph Perez. Her quirky portrayal of the helper absolutely pleased the audience.

It was difficult to shift from looking at the English translation projected on screen and then looking at what’s happening on stage. But I decided just to focus on the stage and I was still able to get how things went although I had no idea what was being sung. Overall, I also felt that the whole production could have done a lot more but as the music director Camille Lopez-Molina said before the show started, this was just a small step and that they do hope to mount a bigger production in the future. Eventually, they did succeed in making a newbie like me to want to see another opera in the near future. And looking at what’s in store in the cultural calendar, I’m just glad that it's going to be a lot sooner than I expected.

Text by RAd

Photo by Kaye Atienza