One of the main focuses of the Costume Shop this fall has been building our new production of Così fan tutte, the second opera in our trilogy of the Mozart-da Ponte operas directed by Michael Cavanagh. The manor house that came to life in The Marriage of Figaro last year has moved forward in time to the 1930s, and has become a country club, replete with a swimming pool, badminton court, and locker rooms.

Whenever someone introduces The Elixir of Love (L’Elisir d’Amore), you can be sure the discussion will include mention of the jaw-dropping speed of its composition. I find myself slightly bemused by the skepticism with which scholars approach Donizetti’s boast that he completed the work in about two weeks; some suggest that the more accurate figure might have been closer to… a whole month (as if that in itself were not impressive enough)!

Master of the theater that he was, Verdi liked to recall a childhood incident in which real life seemed to trump the most hair-raising effects imagined for the stage. At the local church in his native village of Roncole, young Verdi found his attention naturally drawn to the music he heard during worship services. One day, while serving as an altar boy, he became so distracted from his duties that the priest celebrating Mass kicked him.