Some plays, films, novels, operas, start in the middle of a story, and there is a whole lot which has gone on before about which we know nothing. Such is the case with Lorenzo da Ponte’s libretto for Cosi fan tutte; the action erupts on-stage in the middle of an argument about the fidelity of women. What triggered the argument? How did the couples get together? Where – for this is the eighteenth century, not the twenty-first – are the young women’s parents / guardians?

With so many unanswered questions, it is advisable not to opine too dogmatically on the ideology or morality of the storyline. Rather, we can sit back and observe what happens to pigeons when a cat is introduced.

Cosi fan tutte is an ensemble piece, with the orchestra very much part of the ensemble. In Opera North’s revival of Tim Albery’s 2004 production, conducted by Clemens Schuldt, the ensemble is very strong.

Tobias Hoheisel’s unfussy set is an expanding box, which stands as the interior of a room, painted black with white table and chairs. The men are in creamy-white, the women in a pale blue. More colour arrives once the men have ‘departed’; Fiordiligi with a green-patterned skirt, Dorabella with red. The visiting Albanians are similarly greenish and orangey-red, respectively. Don Alfonso and Despina remain rather black and white.

There is a further unanswered question – how old are they, anyway? Are Fiordiligi and Dorabella teenagers like Kitty and Lydia Bennet, or their older sisters Jane and Elizabeth? Whichever, their distress when their fiancés are called away to active service verges on the melodramatic. Are they in love with their fiancés, or with the idea of being in love. Still, it provides us with one of the sweetest moments in Mozart’s canon – Soave sia il vento, or, since it is sung in English, May the breezes blow, with the delicious strings underpinning the singing of Alexandra Lowe (Fiordiligi) and Heather Lowe (Dorabella) and a rather cynical Don Alfonso (Quirijn de Lang).

The young men, on the other hand, are a bit reluctant to throw themselves into the spirit of the deception, as is clear when they arrive as visiting friends of Don Alfonso. Persuaded, their gift for over-acting is displayed when they ‘take poison’ in despair at the women’s rejection of their advances. Henry Neill (Guglielmo) and Anthony Gregory (Ferrando) are ‘cured’ by Despina, the women’s maid, disguised as a doctor and wielding magnets.   

Gillene Butterfield’s worldly-wise Despina has been co-opted easily into the charade by Don Alfonso and stirs things with the women, who allow themselves a little flirtation – as long as it doesn’t go too far. The men, on the other hand, still think their faith in their sweethearts has been vindicated, although, in Opera North’s witty house translation, ‘A little doubting, just among ourselves, might be advisable, to leave ‘a little room for suspicion’. Guglielmo, after all, is making headway with Dorabella, and when he sings about women being too fickle, Ferrando goes over the top about her infidelity.

And so, the boys lose their bet, as Don Alfonso explains women to them, again, and the couples are re-united after a day of madness. Returning to these earlier questions, though, as Dorabella and Guglielmo exchange looks, one wonders what the future holds.