Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte

Description

‘The school for lovers’, Mozart’s alternative title for Così fan tutte, is given a playful, theatrical treatment by German director Jan Philipp Gloger, who sets this new production for The Royal Opera in a theatre. The four lovers are performed by a cast of young rising stars, with Sabina Puértolas as the fun-loving Despina and acclaimed German baritone and comic genius Johannes Martin Kränzle as the impresario Don Alfonso, who leads the lovers on a role-playing journey full of picturesque settings. Semyon Bychkov conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in one of Mozart’s most beautiful scores, packed with wonderful arias and ensembles. 'A compelling concept aligns with sparkling comedy in an endlessly revealing examination of love... This success is no doubt also down to a shining cast: Corinne Winters’s rich-toned Fiordiligi contrasts with Angela Brower’s lighter lyrical Dorabella; Daniel Behle fetchingly adopts gentle head-tone colouring in Un Aura Amorosa and Alessio Arduini is a virile Guglielmo. Sabina Puertolas exudes street-smart confidence as Despina and Johannes Martin Kranzle delights in his role as social architect. Semyon Byckow draws richly varied colours from the Royal Opera Orchestra, though occasionally favours slow tempos' (The Stage). 'A symbiosis of exceptionally expressive, often sensuous conducting by Semyon Bychkov and an intelligent, thought-provoking production, this Così is potent and properly unsettling.' (The Evening Standard). 'Jan Philipp Gloger’s production of Mozart’s comedy apparently starts not at the beginning of the show, but at the end: during the overture we witness the curtain call of a traditional, period-costume staging, which is almost painfully well observed. More importantly, it leads the four young lovers in the real production’s cast – who commence the evening as members of the Covent Garden audience – into the world of theatrical fantasy that the staging itself self-consciously inhabits. Few dramatic plots, after all, are as deliberately artificial as that of Così, which depends on a deception it would be impossible to sustain for a second in real life. Where else could such a thing happen, except in the theatre? Così is nothing if not an ensemble piece, and this cast is unusually well-matched vocally. Even so, there are standouts in the shape of Daniel Behle’s volatile Ferrando, most of all in his aria Un’ Aura Amorosa, and in the sheer spirit with which Corinne Winters’s by that point almost suicidally troubled Fiordiligi attacks every note of Per Pietà. The puppyish energy of Alessio Arduini’s Guglielmo and the street-smart ebullience of Angela Brower’s Dorabella prove no less endearing. Individually impressive, the cast form an expert musical and dramatic team, playing off one another and responding to Gloger’s complex theatrical demands with unstinting commitment. Conductor Semyon Bychkov’s previous heavyweight assignments at this venue – Wagner, Strauss, Tchaikovsky – notwithstanding, h