This Opera North revival in English of Così fan tutte successfully breathes life once more into director Tim Albery’s ingenious interpretation, which I last saw in 2016. It puts the opera firmly into the context of the closing stages of the Age of Enlightenment. The idea still wears well, fitting into late 18th-century beliefs that logic, reason and scientific exactitude could be applied not only to the mechanical laws of the universe but to the laws of society, particularly, in this case, to sexual morality.
Don Alfonso, played by Quirijn de Lang, becomes a sharp-witted philosopher, his powerful voice conveying confident authority as he set up the bet with Guglielmo and Ferrando that their fiancėes, sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, would be unable to remain faithful. The bet is also a scientific experiment, with action in both acts taking place in a confined geometric space, a version of a camera obscura first seen as a tall flat painted to look like the side of a hardwood box, with a large lens in the middle to symbolise the fact that the characters inside are specimens to be observed. When lifted, a claustrophobic room is revealed, the equivalent perhaps of a modern space recorded by a fixed CCTV camera. The set and costume designer is Tobias Hoheisel.
Inside this self-contained world, the two sisters offer no reason why they have come from Ferrara to Naples, there is no reference to explain the nature of the war their two lovers pretend to be summoned to, or of the exotic ‘Albanian’ place they come from in disguise. Mozart’s sublime music serves secular interests, which came to the fore quickly with a moving “Soave sia il vento” trio in Act 1, where Don Alfonso, Dorabella and Fiordiligi hope for a peaceful sea passage for the male lovers. Ferrando and Guglielmo first appeared in grey greatcoats and hats which made them appear like little Napoleons. Like the other characters, they come through entry and exit points with simple closing doors, as in a lift. In their disguises, they look rather like colourful hippies.
Making her Opera North debut, Alexandra Lowe was a terrific Fiordiligi, adapting her remarkably agile soprano precisely to each changing situation, constantly impressive as when, for example, she sang about her faithful soul being like an immovable rock. Anthony Gregory as Ferrando used his sweetly beautiful tenor effectively to convey emotions from anger to ardent love. Heather Lowe, who I remember as a brilliantly funny Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro here four years ago, was a charmingly flirtatious Dorabella, less innocent than her stage sister, her individuality steadily emerging. When in an aria she compared love to a little thief, she was most impressively convincing.
Henry Neill's Guglielmo was full of boyish zest, singing about beguiling eyes strongly and clearly. He has a talent for comedy, apparent in the scene where the two men fake their own poisoning with arsenic, to be brought back to life by Gillene Butterfield's Despina, disguised as a doctor, wielding a couple of horseshoe magnets. In contrast, his great dismay when he realises that Fiordiligi has finally become unfaithful is rawly convincing, in line with the more tragic developments towards the end, when events are less amusing.
Butterfield's Despina was close to becoming a scene-stealer, producing audience titters every time she entered in multiple disguises. The character gets more spot-on lines of social commentary than most dissembling soubrettes, and Butterfield delivered them with verve, from laughing at the sisters’ stupidity to her beautifully delivered aria in which she declares that at 15 years old a woman should know the ways of the world.
Lorenzo Da Ponte’s original libretto specified seaside and garden backgrounds, but that has been lost in translation. Most of Opera North’s productions are in other languages, and surtitles on screens have become routine. They are used for this witty (but unacknowledged) English version, which helped the audience click to some of the funnier exchanges. The orchestra conducted by Clemens Schuldt was on top form, bouncing the motifs off the walls of the box on stage with great accuracy. It was very welcome to see this intelligent production brought back to life!
