This play was
a paper project assigned in a scene design course. Mozart's opera, "Cosi
Fan Tutte," was composed in 1790. As reviews frequently mention,
the plot is often viewed as utterly inferior to the sumptuous music.
In this opera, two men, Ferrando and Guglielmo, enter a bet as to whether
their fiancˇes, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, will remain faithful in their
absence. In Mozart's original story, Ferrando and Guglielmo pretend
to go to war but come back and disguise as "strangers" to
seduce the women. Dorabella and Fiordiligi fall into faithlessness,
leading to the sarcastic title, which translates "All Women Are
Like That." However, I think "Cosi Fan Tutte" is not
just an innocent and simple-hearted eighteen-century's love story. It
could be seen as a modern event about how penetration occurs in our
everyday life. To infiltrate, we do not have to be a detective, journalist,
or spy. In our daily life, activities such as firsthand gossip, interviewing,
reading, or viewing "inside story," and peeping, all involve
a degree of infiltration. By virtue of such a penetration, we collect
information that we should have not received in and through otherÕs
lives, organizations or groups. Our everyday practice of penetration
occurs frequently in intimate relationship, too. We engage in various
forms of penetration, such as peeping otherÕs diary, e-mail, or monitoring
our romantic partner's telephone conversations. We do this not just
out of curiosity. Rather, by various techniques of "penetration",
we want to attest certain beliefs of our beloved ones, most importantly,
their fidelity and loyalty. In this opera, Ferrando and Guglielmo contrived
Dorabella and Fiordiligi. They penetrate their lives by setting up a
different situational context that places Dorabella and Fiordiligi to
be subject to secret monitoring. In doing so, the men become tricksters
to test the women's fidelity. However, to acquire this sort of information
might be an incidental gain or cost of an intimate relationship. When
Ferrando and Guglielmo find that Dorabella and Fiordiligi are seduced
by their disguised identities. As tricksters, Ferrando and Guglielmo
are also entrapped by the unwanted information that they shouldnÕt have
acquired. So how do "tricksters" deal with the information
acquired by engaging in indirect act of cheating and infiltrating? How
do they validate their discovery of secret information? How do they
reveal themselves, as the voice of justice, or as bad guys? Thus, "
Cosi Fan Tutte " poses some very interesting questions for me.
Penetration can lead to entrapment in which infiltrator or trickster
actually can "set up" a game, or a test, but can do nothing
about the results. The penetrators are thus vulnerable to the consequences
of their penetration and expose the vulnerability an intimate relationship.
Since such a situation can occur in our everyday life, I modernize this
opera as an event surrounded by modern world element.
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