Così fan tutte, Royal Opera review — effervescent Mozart with exceptional cast

While the main Royal Opera company is away on tour performing Rigoletto and Turandot in Japan — Antonio Pappano’s final engagement as music director — a revival of Così fan tutte is an obvious choice to keep opera going back at base. This most inward-looking of Mozart’s comedies involves just six singers and a small chorus.

Over the past 50 years, countless performances of Così have shown that its very simplicity hides infinite possibilities. Jan Philipp Gloger’s production reimagines it as an opera-about-an-opera, in which the four lovers test their relationships in settings representing the history of love through the ages — the Garden of Eden, a wartime railway station out of Brief Encounter and finally the theatre itself.

The result is complex and ingenious, but not very funny. Maybe we should be glad that much of the old comic business has been dropped, though it is a shame that the women realise the deceptions played on them so early on, robbing later emotions of their force.

This is the best cast the production has seen so far. Golda Schultz does not have a conventional, creamy Mozart sound, but her soprano, with its fast vibrato, has character in every part of its range and her singing creates a vivid portrayal of Fiordiligi. Samantha Hankey sings an elegant, high-mezzo Dorabella. Daniel Behle’s Ferrando, phrased with sensitivity, is paired with the fine lyric baritone of Andrè Schuen as Guglielmo.

The scheming pair of Despina and Don Alfonso are skilfully played by Jennifer France, unleashing a wickedly cutting edge of humour, and Gerald Finley, at once suave and superior. At speeds that keep the singers on their toes, Alexander Soddy’s conducting takes wing from curtain-up.

★★★★☆

To July 10, rbo.org.uk

At Glyndebourne, an old favourite has returned. Director David McVicar took a chance back in 2005 when he updated his production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare to India at the time of the British Raj, but the gamble paid off. Throw in some Bollywood razzamatazz and the result remains a brilliant evening’s entertainment.

It was clear within a few scenes that McVicar had returned to supervise this revival himself. Everything is sharp and the production’s British and Indian characters work well with this new, young cast.

The role of Giulio Cesare, intended by Handel for a castrato, has been split between female and male singers in this production’s history. This time countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen captures the dominant personality of a bullish British general thanks to the power at the top of his voice, though it is less strong lower down.

As Cleopatra, Louise Alder sparkles as delightfully as any. Her soprano may lack the last patina of purity, but she has agility and plumbs tragic depths with her intense singing of the great aria “Se pietà”, which here closes act two.

Teenage Sesto is vividly played as a callow, shy youth by Svetlina Stoyanova and the high centre of gravity of her mezzo adds to her portrayal. Two other countertenors — Cameron Shahbazi and Ray Chenez — enter into the spirit of McVicar’s production with camp turns as Tolomeo and Nireno, and Luca Tittoto sings Achilla with a more muscular bass than is usual in Baroque opera.

Last, but certainly not least, Beth Taylor, who dazzled with her coloratura in Glyndebourne’s production of Handel’s Alcina in 2022, is outstanding again, this time in the very different role of the grieving wife Cornelia. Laurence Cummings gets lively and expressive playing out of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. What is there not to like?

★★★★☆

To August 23, glyndebourne.com