OPERA: COSI FAN TUTTE
Image: In Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte”, two young soldiers are persuaded to test their fiancés’ fidelity and even indulge in entrapment to make their point. Things could have got nasty but it all turns out all right in the end, and of course, the music is wonderful.
Mozart’s comic opera Così Fan Tutte is given new life in Jim Sharman’s direction of a tale of love tested, betrayed and then restored, similar to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When two young officers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, swear their fiancés Dorabella and Fiordiligi will always remain faithful, their cynical friend Alfonso sets out to prove the opposite. The two young men disguise themselves as foreigners under Alfonso’s direction, and eventually succeed in seducing their unsuspecting partners. Needless to say, after some uncomfortable moments, the young men are reconciled to their fiancés and it ends happily for all concerned. The director of Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Rocky Horror Picture Show is no stranger to opera, having directed Voss and Death in Venice. Sharman searched around for his cast, crew and conductor and put together an ensemble that brings a fresh approach to Cosi. Rachelle Durkin is a delightful Fiordiligi, bringing to her character an appealing urgency and pathos, while Sian Pendry is quite the feisty Dorabella. Henry Choo and Shane Lowrencev give their young men an endearing naivete while Tiffany Speight steals the show as the maidservant Despina. Young Australian conductor Simon Hewett, fresh from the Paris Opera Orchestra, accepted Sharman’s invitation and returned to Australia for the season to lead the orchestra through this musical delight.
Until Oct 29, Sydney Opera House, $93-250, 9318 8200 or opera-australia.org.au
