“The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s production of the Mozart-Da Ponte opera ‘Cosi fan tutte’ arrives on stage at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on Friday with a hard-edged futurism and a note of nostalgia,” writes Chris Lee in Thursday’s (5/22) Los Angeles Times. The production is directed by Christopher Alden, with costumes by “two-time British Fashion Council’s designer of the year Hussein Chalayan” and sets by British architect Zaha Hadid. “The impulse to bring architects and fashion designers into the opera world is just one of many initiatives that has helped define the L.A. Philharmonic as arguably the most forward-thinking major orchestra in the world…. In 2008, Phil President Deborah Borda, Vice President of Artistic Planning Chad Smith and [music director Gustavo] Dudamel began dreaming up projects the incoming maestro could take on…. Talk of Mozart led to a more focused discussion about the composer’s Da Ponte operas. And that led to chat about experimental staging—‘something very L.A. Phil,’Borda recalled.… For Borda … the trilogy’s culmination is bittersweet: the end of a long artistic journey but also a long-held dream. ‘I feel nostalgic,’ Borda said. ‘Artistically, it’s fulfilled its promise in so many ways we didn’t expect.’ ”
Posted May 23, 2014
