A Cozy Cosi

 

Emily Michiko Jensen, Nicole Koh and Jonghyun Park.
Photo by David Allen.

Opera San Jose

Cosi fan tutte

September 14, 2025

Mozart’s battle of the sexes could be considered one of the world’s first (and finest) sitcoms. Opera San Jose stage director Alek Shrader really leans into that idea, creating a cozy production with a perfectly cast set of players.

Shrader’s approach is more whimsical than over-the-top (more Chaplin than Marx Bros.), leading to moments of gentle humor that tickle the frontal cortex as well as the funny bone. At the second-act curtain, an anonymous hand tosses four lemons onstage. Being plastic lemons, they scatter, leaving poor Nicole Koh, playing Despina the housemaid, to pick them up as she sings. My immediate thought was, She has to follow a different route every performance! Which John Cage would have loved.

Koh is also a perfect example of sacrificing vocal beauty for the sake of comedy. We know she’s got great pipes - OSJ patrons know her from her Queen of the Night - but with Despina she spends the evening snarling and whining about her spoiled patrons. Her physical humor is brilliant; at one point she illustrates what the girls should do with their strange Albanian visitors by riding a settee like a bucking bronco.

We are graced yet again with bass-baritone Dale Travis, playing Don Alfonso, the initiator of the wager that begins all this hanky-panky. Travis goes for the doddering prankster look, complete with the twin-peaked Don Pasquale wig. Our Foirdiligi, soprano Emily Michiko Jensen, is fearless in matters both vocal and postural. Between draping herself upside-down from the furniture and lifting the poor tenor onto an ottoman with illicit intent, she attacks the hugely intervalled “Come scoglio” with a dramatic-soprano ferocity.

In contrast, tenor Jonghyun Park plays Ferrando with a vulnerable romanticism, inspiring pangs of sympathy when he’s the first to be betrayed. His performance of the love song to love, “Un aura amarosa,” was a treasure of simple elegance and tonal purity.

Baritone Jose Rivera gets the most out of Guglielmo’s football-quarterback smugness, wrestling with the Bro Code for perhaps five seconds before putting the moves on his Best Friend’s Girl. Later, he mercilessly flaunts his victory before Ferrando. (Don’t worry - he’ll get his.)

Mezzo Joanne Evans is like the magic elixir that makes everyone else look good. She and Jensen both have magnificent stage faces; Evans is best at Dorabella’s look of scandalized-yet-aroused. Her voice shines during her duets with Fiordiligi, notably the closing passages of “Ah, guarda sorella,” which produced numerous tinglings of the spine.

One of the more memorable orchestral moments came soon after in “Soave sia il vento,” the wavering strings tone-painting a sunrise over the ocean. This reflected the overall approach of Joseph Marcheso and his troops, who played with a deftly light touch. I am a connoisseur of recitative, and was perfectly seated to watch both sides of the conversations between harpsichordist Veronika Agranov-Dafoe and her singers.

The production design was classic and lovely, from Steven C. Kemp’s graceful Italian walls to Elizabeth Poindexter’s crisp period costumes (especially Ferrando and Guglielmo’s military uniforms). I also enjoyed the perfectly spheroid lemon trees, which multiplied as the evening progressed.

OSJ is giving its patrons a say in how the opera ends, through an online voting process. It’s really just a matter of pairing up folks for the final number, and doesn’t affect the score. But it is kind of fun.

Through Sept. 28, California Theater, 345 S. First Street, San Jose. $58-$215, operasj.org, 408/437-4450.

Michael J. Vaughn is opera critic for the Palo Alto Weekly and the author of 30 novels. His recent Punks for the Opera is available at Amazon.com.