Cosi fan tutte
- Robert Beale
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Da Ponte & Mozart
English National Opera
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
February 27-28, 2026: 3 hrs 15 mins
There are two ways of looking at this second effort by English National Opera to show it can fulfil Arts Council England’s demand that it make a home for itself in Manchester.
One is to appreciate the quality and professionalism of the international actor-singers and musicians who brought Mozart’s masterpiece to life in the tricky conditions of Manchester’s main concert hall.
The other is to think about the thinness of what was offered here, compared with the lavish quality of the theatrical production on which it was based – Phelim McDermott’s production, first seen in 2014, which transports the action to Coney Island, New York, in the 1950s.
This presentation, by Ruth Knight, is called a concert staging, which can mean different things, but the six singers were, unavoidably, re-enacting their roles from that show’s recent revival in London, and we had to imagine the fairground, the motel, the gardens and so on that are its setting. The words reference “the island”, mention “50 bucks”, and so on, and the two men supposedly drafted for military service (or was it naval?) salute US-style, so it's still in that context.
For comic acting, the best turn was Ailish Tynan’s Despina, the motel cleaner. She’s a great performer, as Opera North audiences know, and a wonderful singer. Lucy Crowe’s Fiordiligi was outstanding in vocal quality, her pure intonation and silky tone at their best in “I have sinned, my love” (aka Per pieta), where for once she was allowed to sing from the choir seating area and thus be in direct sight with the conductor, Alexander Joel. The lack of that was an issue much of the time, and he did a masterful job keeping everything as much together as feasible in the circumstances.
Taylor Raven and Darwin Prakash, as Dorabella and Guglielmo respectively, were thoroughly up to the task of being young, naive pupils in the school of love, while Joshua Blue made Ferrando a kind of Mario Lanza of an Italianate tenor, full of himself and blissfully unaware. Andrew Foster-Williams’ Don Alfonso was knowing, smooth and resonantly sung.
Nonetheless there were practical difficulties. The Bridgewater Hall can be excessively reflective of sound originating near the side of the platform, and using its full width did not help because of that; the 45-strong orchestra, expertly led by David Adams and placed on the same level as the singers, played as strongly as if they were in a pit some of the time – at others, their sound was sweetly beautiful. The chorus walked in and out as required to make their contributions, but their now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t presence was a bit odd.
The production uses Laura Hopkins’ costume design plan cleverly, to match psychological changes in the four youngsters’ feelings as they profess everlasting fidelity to their respective true loves, then end up betraying each other as completely as Don Alfonso’s bet predicts they will. Beyond that, there are subtleties of how flirtatiousness, jealousy, piqued pride, desire for revenge and guilt - which have been more apparent in other showings of this opera - that escaped us. The idea that we should see the weaknesses of the men as well as the women in the story (adumbrated by displaying a banner that changes the title to “Cosi fan tutti” to accompany the big reveal) was never fully carried through.
That’s all true, but we should still be grateful for crumbs from the rich man’s table, you might say. Manchester gets few enough chances to see and hear top-quality opera, and the frequent applause showed that those who came felt that. And ENO is working really hard to connect with people in this city region and build an interest in the art form. There were people near me in the audience who were fiddling on their phones or coughing incessantly – always a sign of non-engagement – so there is probably have some way to go on that one.
And there’s also the point that English National Opera is guarding the flame of our vernacular opera. This production was sung in English, in Jeremy Sams’ clever translation – contrast with Opera North’s The Marriage of Figaro, shortly to be seen at the Lowry (which is first-rate and highly recommended), where for the first time for that company it’s in the original Italian. Screen-projected English is shown in both cases, so does it make a big difference? It probably still does.
There’s just one chance more to see this show, if you’re reading this early on Saturday 28th February – it’s this afternoon, so get moving.
More info and tickets here
