Cosi' fan tutte - WNO new production

[kernelbogey]

Has anybody seen this yet - or read any reviews? (I've just booked for Southampton.)

[kernelbogey]

I've just seen this and loved the production. The director took the alternative title - The School for Love - literally and set it in a school. Don Alfonso is a gown-wearing teacher; the chorus come on in a medley of rugby kit and, school uniform; Despina is a kind of factotum at the school. The principals were all excellent as was the playing by the WNO orchestra. I had anticipated that the production might be stretching credulity too much with a school setting but it worked well. As it's essentially a farce, the modernisation worked in tandem with the plot. It was sung in Italian with excellent diction all round. The staging was lively with plenty of movement, and even the recits were lively. This was a matinee performance and I enjoyed it a lot.

[french frank]

I had anticipated that the production might be stretching credulity too much with a school setting but it worked well. As it's essentially a farce, the modernisation worked in tandem with the plot.

Rather like the production of Die Entführung set on the Orient Express then. It just might not work - but it does!