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In Review (http://www.operanews.org/operanews/templates/review.aspx?date=7/1/2010) > North America

Cos Fan Tutte

NEW YORK CITY

Mannes Opera5/6/10

The faculty of Mannes Opera, a division of Mannes College The New School for Music, has a well-testedapproach to programming: it makes the decision to produce a particular opera only after surveying the

available talent each academic year. This spring, available talent yielded two fine casts for Mozart's Cos

Fan Tutte (seen Thursday May 6 and Friday May 7). Joseph Colaneri, Mannes artistic director and

conductor, led the fully-staged performances at Hunter College's intimate Kaye Playhouse. Colaneri, with

the thirty-seven-piece Mannes Orchestra, navigated Mozart's score proficiently and stylishly while remaining

attentive to the needs of his student singers.

Thursday night's Despina, Emily Duncan-Brown, was aptly cast: she is an adept comic actress, whose sense

of humor seeps into her vocal phrasing. When playing Act I's incognito doctor, she put on a heavy but not

overplayed lisp, and she played Act II's notary as an aspirating, coughing senior citizen. Friday evening's

Despina, Nadine Sierra, winner of the 2009 Met National Council Grand Finals, has a pleasant, slightly

agitated vibrato and a supple, mellifluous tone. She well deserves the label of singer-to-watch.

Fiordiligi received polished interpretations from Natalie Aroyan (Thursday) and Mithra Mastropierro

(Friday), both understanding the indignant and also coy demands of "Come scoglio." Arroyan has a

robust soprano, but by the end of Act II she exhibited a tendency to push at the top of her range.

Mastropierro has finesse in softer passages and clear intonation but sings with a noticeably more constricted

sound at louder dynamics.

As Ferrando, Thursday's Theo Lebow proved himself a collegial singer in ensemble passages, but his impact

was diminished by faulty breath control. Friday evening's Ferrando, Paul Han, has a confident, burnished

tenor perfectly suited to this size house. On Thursday, Suchan Kim's assured, warm-toned Guglielmo and

Annie Rosen's dulcet, sweetly phrased Dorabella were well matched as a pair of nervous, believable lovers

in Act II's "Il core vi dono." Friday night's Guglielmo, Byung Soo Cho, had excellent intonation but consistent

difficulty projecting. His Dorabella, Hyo Na Kim, who sang "Smanie implacabili" as a finalist in this year's

National Council Grand Finals concert, is a skilled Mozart singer with ample facility for moving notes here

and in her Act I, scene 2 duet with Fiordiligi.

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As Don Alfonso, Riccardo Rivera (Thursday's cast) paid precise attention to recitative essential in this

production, which provided a detailed program synopsis but no subtitles. Rivera did not let comic

opportunities derail his natural and stately deportment in the role, and his strict sense of rhythm made the Act

I quintet "Sento, o Dio, che questo" a highlight. Friday's Don, Luis Alvarado, has a pleasant tone when

singing at the core of a note but was not yet ready for the scheming antics of Alfonso, who sets the action in

motion and then introduces the maxim "Cos fan tutte" when he is proven correct in Act II.

Laura Alley's stage direction made clever use of the Kaye Playhouse's miniature stage, keeping the singers

near their conductor in ensemble numbers and not over-crowding solo passages with blocking. Playful but

never cheeky set designs by Roger Hanna featured a board-able, roll-on Brigantine to carry Ferrando and

Guglielmo to and from battle, a model lakefront-view for the sisters' veranda and a suspended, spotlit gray

ball for the moon. The production was dedicated to Julius Rudel, who graduated from Mannes in the early

1940s. Rudel, along with master artist-in-residence Regina Resnik, coached students as they prepared for

Cos performances and was in attendance Thursday evening.

TRISTAN KRAFT

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