ENO’s Cosi in Manchester

ENO’s second visit to Greater Manchester in its present season (the first was two performances at Salford’s Lowry with Britten’s Albert Herring in October) is a concert-style version of the Mozart favourite, Cosi fan tutte (“Women are all the same”).

The opera will be performed by the cast of English National Opera's London revival of Phelim McDermott’s production, first seen in 2014, which opened recently to high praise. But Manchester’s version (seen on the evening of February 27, then repeated as a matinee at 3pm the following day) will be re-presented by Ruth Knight, so it looks like we might not get the acrobats, jugglers, fire-eaters and sword swallowers of the 1950s setting in Coney Island - the giant New York amusement park - that was seen in London. The show is described by ENO’s artistic director, Annilese Miskimmon, as “semi-staged”.

She said: “We can’t wait to connect with Manchester audiences once again and hear the glorious music of Mozart’s comic masterpiece in the iconic space of the Bridgewater Hall, performed by the award-winning orchestra and chorus of ENO, with world-class

operatic artists.”

The conductor will be Alexander Joel, and the singers Annilese speaks of are the youthful quartet of Lucy Crowe (Fiordiligi), Taylor Raven (Dorabella), Joshua Blue (Ferrando) and Darwin Prakash (Guglielmo), with Wigan-born Andrew Foster-Williams (Gunther in Opera North’s Gotterdammerung in 2016 and Don Pizarro in their Fidelio in 2011 at the Bridgewater Hall) as Don Alfonso, and Ailish Tynan (Mahler 2 with the BBC Philharmonic in 2011, Mahler 4 with the Halle in 2013 and Mahler 8 with Chetham’s in 2019, all at the Bridgewater Hall) as Despina.

The opera has no real place – ostensibly Naples, but it could be anywhere with a sea-port – but suggests a background of seaside and gardens. We see two sisters in love with two brothers, and the bet the lads make with the older (and more cynical) philosopher, Don Alfonso, as to whether their girls’ fidelity will last even a day once they are on

their own and tempted by their opposite numbers in disguise. Despina, the amoral ladies’ maid, helps to make the test reality.

More info and tickets here