There’s much to enjoy in ENO’s new production of Cosi fan tutte with Phelim McDermott in the director’s seat and Kerem Hasan in charge in the pit.
The singing is faultless with especially strong performances from Benson Wilson as a fruity Guglielmo and Nardus Williams as a wistful but powerful Fiordiligi especially in her “Far Away a Man is Sighing” with horns doing lovely work beneath her. The famous Act 1 trio (Williams, Hanna Hipp as Dorabella and Neal Davies as Alfonso) is sung with show stopping passion.
I notice that English inflexions don’t always sit happily with the rise and fall of the music although I appreciate and respect ENO’s policy of staging all shows in English.
Tom Pye’s sets are grandiloquently impressive with carousel horses, swan pedalos and illuminated encircling heart shaped arch ways. It’s all colourfully romantic.
Nearby is a circus complete with sword swallowers, fire eaters, acrobats and the like. They are in effect a non singing ensemble (they do a lot of scene shifting) in addition to the chorus which, because this is Mozart, appears very little.However, I found them a distraction.
It’s an insult to the singers and seems to imply that the director doesn’t trust Mozart to deliver the goods without irrelevant visual trivia.
This performance began – appropriately – with the Ukrainian national anthem, I applaud this decision.
Review by Susan Elkin
Photo by Lloyd Winters