United Kingdom Mozart, Così fan tutte: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of Opera North / Clemens Schuldt (conductor). Lyric Theatre, The Lowry, The Quays, Salford, 21.3.2024. (MC)
Manufacturing:
Stage director – Tim Albery
Set and Costume design – Tobias Hoheisel
Lighting design – David Finn
Refrain grasp – Anthony Kraus
Solid:
Fiordiligi – Alexandra Lowe
Dorabella – Heather Lowe
Ferrando – Anthony Gregory
Guglielmo – Henry Neill
Despina – Gillene Butterfield
Don Alfonso – Quirijn de Lang
Mozart’s opera buffa in two acts Così fan tutte (Girls are all the identical) has a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. It’s a preposterous plot about love and deception, honour and loyalty containing lots of the composer’s most irresistible arias and ensembles. Da Ponte’s libretto is authentic and tells the story of comrades-in-arms Guglielmo and Ferrando who check the constancy of their fiancées, the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, for a wager with previous thinker Don Alfonso. On the behest of Alfonso the 2 males disguise themselves as Albanians in an try and seduce the sisters. Così fan tutte has a libretto full of glowing humour and pathos but quickly after its premiere in 1790 at Burgtheater, Vienna it failed to seek out favour with audiences for round a century.
A serious motive for this unpopularity was in nineteenth-century Vienna the plot of swapping fiancées was frowned upon, even deemed immoral. Regularly turning into wider recognized by across the finish of the Second World Struggle Così fan tutte had gained in reputation, attaining a spot in customary operatic repertoire. In response to the final operabase.com data it was the fifteenth most carried out opera worldwide. I are likely to expertise Così fan tutte as too wordy and overlong, but this doesn’t forestall me from having fun with the opera.
With this Così fan tutte (sung in English translation) vastly skilled stage director Tim Albery and his design group have been reviving their twenty-year-old Opera North manufacturing from 2004. Narrowing the expansive stage, set and costume designer Tobias Hoheisel created a great mini-set that was conventional in appears and simple with a minimal of props leaving an uncluttered stage. Even the refrain couldn’t be seen on stage and was heard from backstage. Hoheisel’s interval costumes have been hanging, nevertheless, I doubt the stage lighting did justice to the colourful colors.
Albery might need specified extra animated performances, nevertheless, it didn’t forestall his solid of six soloists from displaying accomplishment of their roles. Giving a stellar efficiency was Quirijn de Lang because the previous thinker Don Alfonso, a personality insightfully described as an ‘agent provocateur’ or ‘observer’. It was he who devised the day-long constancy check. An assured singer and actor the position of Alfonso might need been made for the trendy De Lang and his expertise of singing some seventy opera roles shone by means of as he all the time appeared totally engaged. Alfonso has no standalone arias, but De Lang used his undoubted capability for recitative to substantial impact.
On the Royal Northern Faculty of Music in 2015 I first reported on soprano Alexandra Lowe (no relation to Heather) in a efficiency of Kurt Weill’s Avenue Scene. My assessment declared how Alexandra as Rose Maurrant had stolen the present. Right here within the position of Fiordiligi, the extra earnest and oldest of the 2 sisters, Alexandra has continued her progress giving an adept and stylish efficiency along with first-rate stagecraft. Displaying such an agreeably heat voice in Fiordiligi’s a lot admired arias Come scoglio and Per pietà, each difficult and requiring a broad vary, they have been fantastically produced with out pressure.
Mezzo-soprano Heather Lowe sang the position of Dorabella who she portrayed because the extra emotional of the sisters but remained dignified. Pleasant have been Dorabella’s arias Smanie implacabili and É amore un ladroncello sung by Heather with magnificence and a contact of vulnerability. Taking the a part of the amiable Ferrando was Anthony Gregory a lyric tenor. Gregory’s splendid rendition of the fantastic aria Un’aura amorosa supplied effectively phrased singing mixed with a lovely and tender tone. Baritone Henry Neill within the position of Guglielmo was a personality that oozed confidence in Non siate ritrosi and in Donne mie demonstrated resentment. All in all, Neill sang effectively and didn’t put a foot fallacious.
A member of the Opera North refrain for eighteen years, soprano Gillene Butterfield was suited to the position of Women maid Despina. Introduced on board to help Alfonso with the constancy check Despina disguised herself in garments and voice, as each a health care provider and notary. As a feisty Despina, Butterfield attained a way of an previous head on younger shoulders and her aria Una donna a quindici anni, explaining how younger girls ought to have the ability to flirt, with its low notes was capably sung.
All through I used to be enamoured by the substantial sequence of ensembles that have been so auspiciously carried out and an actual credit score to the solid. With convincing ranges of unison and an impressive stage of vibrant expression the Orchestra of Opera North excelled below conductor Clemens Schuldt who saved issues shifting alongside at a tempo that I discovered splendid. Hidden away backstage the Opera North refrain coached by Anthony Kraus sounded in high quality voice.
Every thing had been satisfactorily in place utilizing a compact set and interval costumes, and along with a gifted solid mixed to make this an eminently fulfilling manufacturing. In abstract this Opera North revival of Tim Albery and Tobias Hoheisel’s manufacturing of Così fan tutte was given a most completed efficiency.
Michael Cookson