''Covid fan tutte'' is a 2020 comic opera created and produced by the
Finnish National Opera
The Finnish National Opera and Ballet ( fi, Suomen Kansallisooppera ja -baletti; sv, Finlands Nationalopera och -balett) is a Finnish opera company and ballet company based in Helsinki. It is headquartered in the Opera House on the coast of the T ...
. It is a comedic adaptation of Mozart's ''
Così fan tutte
(''All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers''), K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte w ...
'', depicting life in the spring of 2020 as disrupted by the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. The libretto is by
Minna Lindgren, written to music by
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
. The idea for the opera was conceived by conductor
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music di ...
and soprano
Karita Mattila
Karita Marjatta Mattila (born 5 September 1960) is a Finnish operatic soprano.
Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastill ...
, after the pandemic caused the cancellation of Finnish National Opera's planned production of Wagner's ''
Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...
''. A filmed performance of the work was available for streaming worldwide through March 2021.
History
The inception of ''Covid fan tutte'' came about when the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
caused the cancellation of
Finnish National Opera
The Finnish National Opera and Ballet ( fi, Suomen Kansallisooppera ja -baletti; sv, Finlands Nationalopera och -balett) is a Finnish opera company and ballet company based in Helsinki. It is headquartered in the Opera House on the coast of the T ...
's planned production of ''
Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...
''. The idea was conceived by conductor
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music di ...
and soprano
Karita Mattila
Karita Marjatta Mattila (born 5 September 1960) is a Finnish operatic soprano.
Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastill ...
, Finnish natives who both reside in the U.S. but flew to Finland when international borders began closing due to the pandemic, and then found themselves virtually unable to return to the U.S.
Journalist and novelist
Minna Lindgren was commissioned in mid May 2020 and given a little over a month to create a libretto,
which she wrote to selected music from Mozart's ''
Così fan tutte
(''All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers''), K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte w ...
'' and an aria each from ''
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...
'' and ''
The Magic Flute
''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inclu ...
''.
Recitatives were eliminated completely,
and Salonen composed additional musical snippets such as interludes and keyboard parts.
The completed opera premiered in Helsinki on 28 August 2020, directed by
Jussi Nikkilä
Jussi Nikkilä (born 28 June 1982 in Lahti) is a Finnish actor and director.
Selected filmography
*''Young Gods'' (2003)
*''Beauty and the Bastard'' (2005)
*'' Ganes'' (2007)
*'' Sixpack'' (2011)
*''Love and Other Troubles'' (2012)
*''Estonia
...
and conducted by Salonen, with a total of 12 performances through 23 October 2020, subtitled in English, Finnish, and Swedish.
Mattila is a featured performer in the production, playing a parody of herself as an internationally renowned opera diva trapped in Finland because of the pandemic, and also singing the role of Despina.
On 6 October 2020, Finnish National Opera posted a film of the 1 September 2020 performance of the opera online, free to stream worldwide through 30 March 2021, with available subtitles in English and Finnish. On 16 October 2020 OperaVision also posted the entire opera on YouTube, with English subtitles available, for four months.
Roles
Synopsis
The opera opens with the prelude to Act 1 of ''
Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...
'', which is eventually interrupted by Finnish National Opera's customer interface manager, who instructs conductor
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music di ...
to play Mozart instead. At home, opera singers adjust to the reality of possible COVID-19 restrictions and uncertainties. Government officials try to authoritatively project an air of competence and assurance.
An opera diva rails on her phone to a friend, complaining that she is accidentally stuck in Finland, in a dreadful rented flat, when she should be jet-setting around the world singing leading roles at top venues in productions that have now all been cancelled, without pay, because of the coronavirus. She then gets a call offering her a lead role in a Finnish National Opera production.
The rest of the opera satirizes the lives of ordinary Finns; announcements and news conferences by government officials and scientists; and updates as more data emerges and lives grow more constricted and confusing because of societal, business, educational, and work changes in an atmosphere lacking in consistent clear direction from national and international authorities.
References
External links
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{{authority control
2020 operas
Musical parodies
Works about the COVID-19 pandemic
Works based on Così fan tutte
Finnish-language operas
Operas