Eric Cutler photo by Richard Termine	Controversial English director Jonathan Miller and the Metropolitan Opera may be feuding, but Miller is back and Brooklyn's got him. Miller is presiding, in April and May, over a six-performance run of an unorthodox, updated and witty production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte's "Così fan tutte" under the auspices of Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, at the BAM Harvey Theater. It may not be the sort of interpretation that would survive successfully over the course of a dozen years in a repertory company, but under these festival conditions, it worked well. The strong ensemble consisted of a quartet of accomplished and attractive young singers as the lovers—Alexandra Deshorties as Fiordiligi, Rinat Shaham as Dorabella, Eric Cutler as Ferrando and Garry Magee as Guglielmo—with veteran artists Thomas Allen (Don Alfonso) and Helen Donath (Despina) as their cynical advisors.
Brooklyn Philharmonic Music Director Robert Spano leads a taut performance, with some cuts. (Ferrando and Guglielmo's second scene duettino and the former's florid "Ah! lo veggio" are omitted.) With white and off-white predominating, as in many an effort associated with Miller, designer Anne Patterson gives both costumes and furnishings a contemporary look, with the women often in pants and the men particularly timely when in American military uniform. There is a huge mirror center stage that nearly everyone pauses to primp in at some point. Disguised when testing their loves' fidelity, for the sake of a fairly insidious wager devised by Don Alfonso, the men, per Miller's decree, become swaggering inner city punks in shades and it's no wonder their fiancées don't recognize them! Cutler's Ferrando sports a "Heavy Metal" tee shirt with the sleeves hacked off, a tattoo and a do-rag, while Magee's Guglielmo wears dreadlocks and black leather. These swingers pop pills, of course, for the first act "suicide attempt." Cutler delivers a graceful "Un' aura amorosa" and stunned, angry "Tradito, schernito" and Magee, solid accounts of "Non siate ritrosi" and "Donne mie, la fate a tanti!"
Deshorties rises nobly to most challenges of the drama and wide-ranging bravura of "Come scoglio" and the rondo "Per pietà," with added embellishments. Shaham contributes a fiery tantrum in "Smanie implacabili" and a creamy and ebullient "E amore un ladroncello." ; Miller has devised a delightful dance for the women as they sing the duet "Prenderò quel brunettino" and contemplate the flirtation proffered by the men. With Deshorties barefoot and Shaham in high heels, the women simulate a tightrope walk toward each other as they plan a balancing act between their old loves and new suitors and negotiate the high-wire demands of the intricate vocal line. Cutler's Ferrando paws Deshorties' Fiordiligi during the first act finale, inspiring her to flights of coloratura.	Helen Donath & Thomas Allen photo by Richard Termine
Magee's Guglielmo and Shaham's Dorabella get no less physical in their second act duet. Depicting the dryly, cruelly clever Don Alfonso, Allen proves that there's life in the old curmudgeon yet. He just can't keep his hands to himself around Donath's Despina! Stylistically correct appoggiature in place and cell phone in hand, he summons CNN to interview Ferrando and Guglielmo, in the second scene, and film their departure for the front. Looking foxy and fashionable in salmon and black as a knowing maid, Despina, Donath, in her early 60s, sounds incredibly fresh in "In uomini, in soldati," complete with cadenza, and in a gently ornamented "Una donna a quindici anni." The latter finds her bringing Fiordiligi and Dorabella a folder of what appear to be glossies and profiles of prospective suitors to peruse. This master masquerader dons scrubs and brings on nurses with a defibrillator to revive the "poisoned" Ferrando and Guglielmo and, in the wedding scene, becomes an oily lawyer with a laptop and a mustache. Nineteenth Century impresarios either eschewed "Così" for its "immorality" or rewrote the story. In the early part of the 20 th Century, it was played as a genteel farce and the lovers as a matter of course returned to their original configuration, despite the trickery and painful lessons learned. Da Ponte does not, in fact, specify what the final arrangement should be and radical late 20th Century directors found the couples either remaining as newly aligned or too traumatized to accept either pairing. I won't reveal Miller's solution, but suffice it to say that a great deal of anger suffuses Mozart and da Ponte's climactic paean to peace and reason here. BAM's opera season continues at the Howard Gilman Opera House with Les Arts Florissants' production of Jean-Phlippe Rameau's "Les Boréades," under William Christie's baton, from June 9 to 15. The Brooklyn Philharmonic celebrates "The Power of Shakespeare," led by Spano, at the Opera House on May 9 and 10, and featuring Thomas Allen, Jennifer Aylmer, Pamela South and Janice Taylor in Act Three of Giuseppe Verdi's "Falstaff."
Così fan tutte at BAM Harvey Theater 651 Fulton St April 24, 26, 28 & 30 & May 2 at 7:30 pm; May 4 at 3 pm Tickets $35-90 The Power of Shakespeare at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House 30 Lafayette Ave May 9 & 10 at 8 pm Tickets $20-55 Les Boréades at Gilman Opera House June 9, 11 & 13 at 7:30 pm & 15 at 2 pm Tickets $30-110 weekdays, $40-125 weekends 718/636-4100, 212/307-4100 http://www.bam.org, http://www.brooklynphilharmonic.org