Review of Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte (Muti)

Introduction

Daniela Dessi and Delors Ziegler head the cast in Cosi Fan Tutti, telling the story of 2 women whose faithfulness in the face of romantic love is tested endlessly. Hailed by many as one of Mozart`s finest opera pieces, this is a recording from the archives of Italian TV station RAI, filmed at the famous Scala.

Video

A 4:3 full frame NTSC transfer awaits, and this comes as less of a surprise nowadays, with so many companies just bunging any old NTSC transfer out instead of sourcing the best they can or creating their own. The colours are ok, and detail levels are reasonable but it all looks a bit flat and set bound.

Audio

Just a DD2.0 soundtrack in Italian, and it all sounds average. I suspect that DD5.1 soundtrack would have made things more exciting, but apart from not being stunning the DD2.0 soundtrack is functional enough.

Features

Not a thing.

Conclusion

I don`t really like opera. I don`t really like musicals. I enjoy theatre, but when you just bung a load of singing in there it spoils the whole thing for me. Mozart may be a great composer, but I have no time for his opera work. The sets also seemed rather dull and flat, I`m sure I`ve seen better from small local theatre companies.

If you do then this DVD might be for you as it seems like a reasonable performance of the work. The technical quality could be better but I suspect that there`s not a great deal of high quality opera on DVD in the first place.

Recommended for opera fans only if this is your sort of thing.