In Wednesday’s (1/22) Ann Arbor News (Michigan), Susan Isaacs Nisbett writes about the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra’s condensed production of Così fan tutte at the orchestra’s annual Mozart Birthday Bash this Saturday. “Said Music Director Arie Lipsky, ‘In our production, what we did was we got all the recitatives, and I asked Ed Yadzinsky, who writes the program notes, to take us through the plot, turning the recitatives into narration.’ That saves lots of time, while leaving intact Così’s Greatest Hits—solos, duos, trios and ensembles—to the delight of both audiences and performers. In this version, there’s also room for some staging: the singers get the front half of the stage, the orchestra the back. The narrator, bass-baritone Stephen West, professor of voice at the University of Michigan and a former Don Alfonso himself (under the baton of Richard Bonynge), is happy, too. ‘Ann Arbor Symphony’s method of presenting the greatest musical highlights from operatic masterpieces, with me as narrator weaving the story,” he said, “makes these superb works so easily accessible to the public.’ ”
Posted January 24, 2014
