Cosi Fan Tutte

Published Monday 22 May 2006 at 15:20 by George Hall

Glyndebourne celebrates Mozart’s 250th anniversary by opening its season with this new production of Cosi, which also marks director Nicholas Hytner’s first opera in the UK in more than a decade.

It is a very welcome return. His staging, with delicate period designs by Vicki Mortimer, subtly lit by Paule Constable, is visually elegant and probes this most complex of comedies with intelligence and perception. Arguably the humour is underplayed at first, but no one will feel short-changed by the end. The characters and the audience go through a profound and troubling experience.

Musically, values are equally high under the direction of Ivan Fischer, making his Glyndebourne debut with an immaculately paced account of the score that proves him a Mozartian with few equals, though a touch more sparkle might be added. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is on excellent form.

It is a well integrated, young and international cast, among whom Nicolas Rivenq’s Alfonso and Topi Lehtipuu’s Ferrando need a shade more definition and Ainhoa Garmendia’s Despina an inch more personality. But there are particularly strong performances, both vocally and dramatically, from Luca Pisaroni’s volatile Guglielmo, Anke Vondung’s flighty Dorabella and especially Miah Persson’s Fiordiligi, who despite one or two minor technical weaknesses (her trill comes and goes, and her vocal registers are not completely integrated) demonstrates a natural affinity with the role and with Mozart that will surely take her a long way.