In the light of the previous slides, and the connections you have considered between the play and the opera/play within it, how does Nowra create structural and stylistic parallels between the actual play and the opera/play within it- and to what effect?

In the play Cosi, Nowra makes the mentrally disabled perform the play Cosi Fan Tutee by Mozart. By doing that, he creates a ‘play within play’ with structural and stylistic parallels between the actual play and the opera. They both have two acts with about similar numbers of scenes in each. 

In Cosi Fan Tutte, the first act has three and the second four scenes, while in the play Cosi there are four scenes in each act. This structural similarity urges us to compare the plays. When comparing them, we can also spot stylistic parallels that they share. They are both comedic, Cosi Fan Tutee is an Opera Buffa which addresses series global issues such as love and fidelity in a humorous way and uses local dialect. This way the lower class can understand and relate to it easily so it has a very powerful impact. This is contrasted to opera seria which was made for depicted kings and nobility and therefore used high flown language. Cosi has elements of comedy as well, including Irony, and also uses simple, informal language so everyone can relate to it. In addition, both plays present stereotypes of different groups in the society. In Cosi Fan Tutee Mozart stereotypes women as disloyal and untruthful in relationships, while Cosi judges the stereotype society has for the mentally disabled as insane, mad and violent. This is foreshadowed by the title of the plays. The title “Cosi Fan Tutte” means “all women are like this”. This encourages the belief that men should simply accept all women are indeed disloyal in relationships. By removing the word “Tutee” which addresses female, Nowra made his title Cosi  simply mean “in this way”, which refers to everyone, men and women, and the way they treat the subject of mental illness.

To sum up, Nowra chose to include the opera Cosi Fan Tutee in his play Cosi and created structural and stylistic parallels between them in order to allow the readers to compare them. The number of acts and scenes are parallel in both plays, they have very similar titles and both have similar, comedic style. All of these were intended to criticize society for keep on stereotyping different groups just as they did two centuries ago, when Cosi Fan Tutee was written.