Created by the Florida Legislature, the New World School of the Arts has provided successful artistic education and training for innumerable students over the last two decades. The school's achievement in the pursuit of artistic excellence is manifest in the fact that 99 percent of its students graduate from high school and 95 percent go on to college.
As part of its mission, the school provides performance opportunities for its students, such as last Friday's performance at the Gusman Center of Cosi fan tutte by the school's Opera Theatre Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra.
Tackling Mozart's opera is an ambitious undertaking even for the New World School's gifted students, and -- with one exception -- the young singers' art is clearly in the developmental stage. Presented in English with several arias cut (Per Pieta, ben mio and Un aura amorosa, most jarringly), the performance, like most modern productions, centered on surface comedy, skirting Cosi's underlying seriousness and depths.
Yet enhanced by Jeffrey Buchman's clever, energetic staging, the event accomplished its principal goal of providing the NWSA singers with the opportunity to participate in a Mozart opera, and certainly for parents and relatives in the audience the evening was a great success.
Buchman shifted the scenario of the two mismatched lovers to a modern cruise ship with all the usual sea-faring tropes -- exercise classes, tropical drinks and poolside bathing beauties. At times, as in the opening scene, the ceaseless background comedy became a distraction, upstaging the principals.
But, for the most part, this witty cruise-ship Cosi worked quite well with Don Alfonso as the captain, the four lovers as passengers and Despna as a cabin maid. When Ferrando and Guglielmo return in their ''Albanian'' disguise, they morph into 1980s rockers. There were also bits of mordant commentary in the Florida-centric touches, as with the young hottie who continually escorted an aged mannequin in a wheelchair.
Catherine Spitzer and Betsy Diaz made a spirited, if genetically improbable, pair of sisters, graceful on stage and singing with commitment. Spitzer offered a respectable Come scoglio, and Diaz displayed a promising mezzo in Dorabella's arias.
Heather Gallagher as Despina was the standout in the cast. The young mezzo possesses a light, agile voice well suited to the role and already has professional stage experience. Her seasoning showed in her comedic flair and confidence; Gallagher tossed off her two arias with panache and proved quite hilarious in Despina's masquerades.
Alan Higgs offered clear diction and a solid baritone as Guglielmo, and Matthew Maness as Ferrando and John Cogollo as Don Alfonso rounded out the cast. The NWSA Symphony Orchestra fared less well, though conductor Alfred Gershfeld set sensible tempos and held things together.
Lawrence A. Johnson is The Miami Herald's classical music critic.
