Cosi by Louis Nowra - Text Analysis Essay
How does Nowra use the opera Cosi fan Tutte to explore the play’s main ideas?
Set in a typical mental asylum in the 1970’s during the anti-Vietnam War protests and the feminist movement for women's equal rights, the play 'Cosi' by Louis Nowra deeply explores the themes of love and fidelity, in a society predominantly concerned with war and politics. Throughout the play, Nowra uses the play within a play, 'Cosi Fan Tutte', to convey his key values regarding the importance of love and fidelity in today's world, while questioning the necessity of war and condemning society's perceptions of madness itself. The playwright delivers these messages through a number of subtle implications and symbolic features which are evident in the story, ideas, characters, and actual dialogue which are presented in the play, and mirrored in Mozart’s opera ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’. His insights and opinions which are offered through Lewis, go largely against the views of Nick and Lucy who represent the general public, because in addition to the main themes of the play, Nowra intends to open the audience’s eyes to some of the less obvious ideas, such as the necessity of self-discovery and transformation, the significance of art and music in life, and the therapeutic nature of theatre.
The predominant theme which runs through ‘Cosi’ is one of love and fidelity, and the opera ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ parallels these ideas by following a similar story line, particularly in the way Guglielmo and Ferrando’s acts of deception in ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ are somewhat connected to Nick and Lucy’s betrayal of Lewis in ‘Cosi’. It is a clear example of life imitating art as the drama in the opera matches Lewis’ challenges with fidelity in his ‘real life’ relationship. ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ roughly translates to ‘women are like that’, and it is this notion that women are unfaithful that Mozart presents in this opera. Knowing this, Nowra purposely mirrors certain elements of the opera in his play, in order to portray the
Set in a typical mental asylum in the 1970’s during the anti-Vietnam War protests and the feminist movement for women's equal rights, the play 'Cosi' by Louis Nowra deeply explores the themes of love and fidelity, in a society predominantly concerned with war and politics. Throughout the play, Nowra uses the play within a play, 'Cosi Fan Tutte', to convey his key values regarding the importance of love and fidelity in today's world, while questioning the necessity of war and condemning society's perceptions of madness itself. The playwright delivers these messages through a number of subtle implications and symbolic features which are evident in the story, ideas, characters, and actual dialogue which are presented in the play, and mirrored in Mozart’s opera ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’. His insights and opinions which are offered through Lewis, go largely against the views of Nick and Lucy who represent the general public, because in addition to the main themes of the play, Nowra intends to open the audience’s eyes to some of the less obvious ideas, such as the necessity of self-discovery and transformation, the significance of art and music in life, and the therapeutic nature of theatre.
The predominant theme which runs through ‘Cosi’ is one of love and fidelity, and the opera ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ parallels these ideas by following a similar story line, particularly in the way Guglielmo and Ferrando’s acts of deception in ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ are somewhat connected to Nick and Lucy’s betrayal of Lewis in ‘Cosi’. It is a clear example of life imitating art as the drama in the opera matches Lewis’ challenges with fidelity in his ‘real life’ relationship. ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ roughly translates to ‘women are like that’, and it is this notion that women are unfaithful that Mozart presents in this opera. Knowing this, Nowra purposely mirrors certain elements of the opera in his play, in order to portray the