Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Stage Director: Chuck Hudson Conductor: Cristofer Macatsoris
AVA Opera Theater: Philadelphia 2004
"After a wonderful AVA directorial debut last season with L'elisir d'amore, Chuck Hudson returns to direct Così."
-AVA Opera Theater
Kristin Leich and Ellie Dehn
"Vibrant
singing, acting lift Academy of Vocal Arts' `Cosi Fan Tutte': the
comedy... unfolds at a fast pace in Hudson's physical staging. The director
demands vivid acting, and the cast provides it... (The singers) both seize - and
savor - the opportunities Hudson gives them for physical comedy. " -Robert Baxter, Philadelphia Courier-Post
"When played straight (as at AVA),
the opera's laughs take care of themselves and let the piece sting you from
behind...AVA's most distinctive touch had Despina (the maid) and Don Alfonso
(the prank's cynical instigator) as being secretly married - the most outward
symptom of a production with the opera's deeper values at heart: By making the
servant married to a man above her social station, Despina's frustrations with
class distinction were better motivated."
-David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer
Jesus Ibarra, Ellie Dehn, Kristen Leich
"The AVA production came
two days later as balm to my ears and to my theatrical preconceptions also...I
found it to be a perfectly enchanting evening in the theater...Chuck Hudson’s
direction showed a delightfully light yet dramatically insightful touch, and the
soloists’ stage presence backed his inspirations up splendidly."
-Bernard Jacobson, Music Web UK
Photographs by Paul Sirochman