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Libretto
by
Lorenzo da
Ponte
Orchestra
of the Royal Opera House conducted
by
Colin Davis
Director
Jonathan
Miller
Designed
and lit by
Jonathan
Miller
and colleagues
The
Royal Opera Chorus directed by
Renato Balsadonna
Ferrando
Matthew Polenzani
Guglielmo
Lorenzo Regazzo
Don
Alfonso
Thomas Allen
Fiordiligi
Dorothea
Roschmann
Dorabella
Elina Garanca
Despina
Rebecca Evans
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Royal
Opera House
Covent
garden
14 - 22 July 2007 |
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Jonathan
Miller's very witty and inventive
Cosi
Fan Tutte
both surprised audiences and
delighted them on its first
appearance in 1995, and this
fifth revival reminds us,
if we needed reminding, what
a brilliant opera director
Miller is - making it hard
to accept his absence from
the scene in his homeland
in recent years, where he
could be and should be bringing
his fresh, acutely intelligent
and wonderfully funny sensibility
to this highest of high arts.
At first Miller seems to lift
Cosi
Fan Tutte
out of its Enlightenment frame
as an essay in social science
in order to render it as a
straightforwardly truthful
piece about human frailty
and - in the end: for there
is a sudden dark hint of a
failure of rapprochement -
ambiguity. But of course,
the hymn to reason at the
close, and Don Alfonso's role
as the servant of frankness
about the mismatch between
romantic illusion and human
reality, keeps the opera's
roots firmly in the Enlightenment's
scepticism, so that the abiding
impression is that Miller
has cleverly revealed the
opera's point to be the humanisation
of the Enlightenment and not
only the enlightening of humans.
The triumph of this revival
lies with the cast, every
member of which is outstanding.
Thomas Allen has made the
role of Don Alfonso absolutely
his own: suave, worldly-wise,
immaculately clothed in tolerant
cynicism, a sense of humour,
and a double-breasted suit.
As her whole-hearted performance
emphatically shows, the beautiful
Elina Garanca is an actress
as well as a singer, and the
same applies to the two gallants,
wonderfully played as well
as sung by Lorenzo Regazzo
and Matthew Polenzani. The
same is even more true of
Rebecca Evans as the saucily
cheerful Despina.
But the star of the evening
was undoubtedly Dorothea Roschmann,
whose singing was an object
lesson in control, range,
accuracy and vigorous attack:
a Mozart performance of perfection,
quivering with energy and
conviction, accepting and
triumphing over every challenge
of the highly demanding score.
She was superb. Add to this
Matthew Polenzani's wonderful
contribution in the exquisite
tenor aria of the first act,
and by that act's end it was
evident that this was one
of Covent Garden's great nights.
With such music and such performances
it matters little that the
set is so unattractive. The
one design feature that really
works is the gallants disguises
not as Albanians but as Heavy
Metal rockers, complete with
full-arm tattoos, long hair
controlled by sweat-bands,
and dark glasses. The sheer
implausibility of their being
able to seduce the two women
from their vows as thus presented
adds to the comedy of the
whole, and throws an extra
dimension of light on the
pace and raciness of the music,
performed to the usual excellent
standards of the Covent Garden
orchestra under Colin Davis,
whose Mozart renditions are
surely the benchmark.
AC
Grayling |
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