The Claus Guth production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così fan tutte from the Salzburg Festival currently playing at La Scala is rather disappointing.

The curtain opens with the two couples and their friends partying in Fiordiligi and Dorabella’s living room, in which then the whole action takes place. A staircase in the background leads to the two sisters’ bedrooms, and a large French window on the back opens onto the garden, which however does not look like a pleasant place at all: it is rather a dark pine wood, with a haunting atmosphere which pervades the room.

Don Alfonso directs everybody’s acting with experienced stage director gestures. When Ferrando and Guglielmo return in disguise they wear wooden African masks on their faces, and Despina also hides her face when she acts as the doctor and later as the notary. At the end of the first act, and in the second, the two men have their faces and clothes darkened with a sort of thick greasepaint, to increase confusion. Eye contact is mostly avoided, and miscommunication among the partners is magnified.

Daniel Barenboim, who is getting close to the end of his tenure at the Milanese company, conducts the orchestra in a gloomy way, with very slow and lifeless tempi. The combination of the staging and the musical direction resulted in a quite dispiriting effect, and the bittersweet flavor of Mozart’s masterpiece failed to come through.

The vocal company was not without problems either. Except for Michele Pertusi, a cynical but vocally satisfactory Don Alfonso, and Serena Malfi, a well-geared Despina, the other principals left much to be desired. Soprano Maria Bengtsson as Fiordiligi had little control at the top of her range, while in the low range, her voice sounded too small. Rolando Villazón’s once handsome tenor has lost its shine, which the singer cannot even supply with stylistic refinement. Mezzo Katija Dragojevic as Dorabella was at odds with almost everything in the score, and baritone Adam Plachetka as Guglielmo did not leave any memorable impression.

The final applause came for everyone, but with some uncertainty from the side of an audience that was visibly impatient to leave the theater.