Così Fan Tutte – review

It's become relatively unusual to find a production of an opera set in period, but Samal Blak's graceful designs for Mozart's comedy, currently in English Touring Opera's repertory, unashamedly maintain its 18th-century context, which certainly fits the music. Paul Higgins' staging keeps faith with the plot, neither adding to nor subtracting from its basic manoeuvres, except in occasionally allowing characters to observe scenes in which they are not involved: Fiordiligi's anguished capitulation to the disguised Ferrando is watched by all the others. It's hard to say whether the loss of this crucial moment's intimacy is compensated by the complexity of response it evokes on stage. In general terms, the direction feels on the broad side, though it comes steadily into sharper focus as the evening proceeds.

All of the individual performances rise to a commendable level, and a few are special. Lorna Bridge stands in for an indisposed colleague as Fiordiligi, gaining confidence as she proceeds; she sketches the vulnerability of the character, while her singing remains focused and sensitive. Kitty Whately's Dorabella is vital in tone and personality. Anthony Gregory delineates Ferrando's insecurity as he skilfully charts his lyrical lines. Outstanding is Paula Sides' Despina – a tough little cookie whose deep cynicism about men is amply confirmed by the action; her second-act aria is expansively shaped.

There are too many moments, though, when stage and pit are not quite together, or when the orchestra is out of sync with itself; at times, James Burton's conducting needs more rhythmic emphasis and at others a sharper eye for Mozart's detail. But much of the show hits the spot, and by the end this most ambiguous of comedies has once more thrown the audience's as well as the characters' expectations into disarray.