Friday, February 1, 2013

Gratuitous Friday – Malin Hartelius is Rosina (No, Not That One)



Here is a recitative and aria from Act 2 of the M22 production of Mozart’s La Finta Semplice. Whatever you think about the quality of this opera, or the strangeness of the production, or the bizarreness of the set, you have to admire Malin Hartelius' willingness to go for it, even in what is possibly the most unflattering dress ever made. 

The recitative pantomime is either hysterical, or slightly embarrassing. I vote for hysterical. And the aria is pretty. Ms. Hartelius does a good job of working her colleagues and working the audience—the gist of her aria is that a woman should never be content with just one lover. Happy Gratuitous Friday!


Recitativo: Me ne vo' prender spasso
 Aria: Ho sentito ha dir da tutte
Josef Wagner is Don Cassandro
(the Italian text is in the notes section at YT)

4 comments:

  1. That dress is way more flattering than the costume Isabel Bayrakdarian got in Idomeneo a year or two back. Potato sack doesn't begin to describe it.

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    Replies
    1. That's very true. No one came out very well from that Idomeneo.
      I often wonder two things:

      1. Do the Hermanns hate singers? They almost always dress their singers strangely (Although, if I remember correctly, Vitellia had a couple of knock-out gowns).

      2. Was there a competition among the M22 costumers designers to see how bizarrely they could outfit their productions?

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    2. There does seem to have been a competition to see who could do the weirdest production for the M22 series.

      Delete
  2. I though the recitative pantomime was pretty funny! And the dress . . in theory, I think a white dress of that general type with a wide belt could be all right, but the cut on that one looks really strange, like it was made for someone else.

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