<<  -- 2 --  Kelly Ferjutz    ELECTED ENDINGS

The two young couples were visually handsome and well-suited to each other, and their voices were sublime. They were light and agile as required for Mozart, yet with the necessary heft to float over the standard-sized chamber orchestra, just behind them.

Lori Lind invested Fiordiligi with dignity and warmth, and just the right amount of hesitation when her virtue came under attack from seemingly everyone else on the stage. On the other hand, her sister Dorabella, sung by the perky Sarah Mattox, was only too amenable to the persuasion of Fiordiligi's former suitor. These two suitors, the Ferrando of Steven Mello and Scott Guinn's Guglielmo were handsome and dashing in whatever guise. In a neat bit of stage business, they became 'mirror twins' (one right-handed, the other left-) when brandishing either swords or lutes.

Left to themselves, these four having already paired off, would no doubt have married, and lived happily ever after. But no, this was not to be. Don Alfonso, in a wonderful spirited performance by Michael P Schmidt had to tinker a bit with the status quo. (In today's world, wouldn't this be considered entrapment?) Ah, well. Lucky for him, the existence of Despina, the maid-of-all-work to the sisters, as brought to vivid life by Kristen Plumley. By turns comic, feisty and inventive, she was only too willing to enter into the conspiracy with Alfonso, thus setting the disguises and plans into motion. Her paean to the wonders of chocolate was mouth-watering!

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