La Donna, non Cosi – Ö1 Changes their Schedule

© Michael Pöhn

I am not sure why, but Austria's Ö1 Radio is not broadcasting the Salzburg Cosi fan tutte tonight/day. I just got a "Seite nicht gefunden" message when I clicked to double-check on it. (I swear it was listed there before!)

Maybe it's due to the crushing reviews Christoph Eschenbach received for his (non)-interpretation. Apparently, he prefers ketchup on his Cosi. It seems he was too busy touring with another ensemble to show up in Salzburg until the final dress rehearsals. The reviewer for the Salzburger Nachrichten said (more or less): 

Eschenbach developed no sense of the complex and intricate balances...no sense of organic graded dynamics, rhetoric, tone and tempo and their essential dramaturgy, flexible, breathing vocal accompaniment... 

This is a bummer, because he certainly has a top-notch cast of singers that deserves more than off-hand attention. On another note, I found out I was right about the ending. Don Alfonso gets the poison this year. The Canadian journal thespec.com noted:

At the very end of the opera, Bechtholf departed from the original [Zurich production] and had Alfonso take a drink, which unbeknownst to him was the poison that Guglielmo had brought to the proceedings. The result? Alfonso, to the surprise of all, dropped "dead" to the floor.

I dare say Alfonso deserves it more than Fiordiligi does!

© Michael Pöhn

Meanwhile, the good news is that if you've missed other broadcasts of it (or if you just want to hear it again), you can hear Rosinni's La Donna del Lago,  on Ö1 with La DiDonato from London and, of course, Juan Diego Florez and Daniela Barcelona.

She's baaaaaack!