Cosi Fan Tutte is, for many, the greatest of all operas, though it is also one of the hardest to stage successfully. The tone, throughout, is tricky. Finding the right balance between the formality of the plot and the painful emotions Mozart's music exposes has caused problems for many of the greatest directors. This new staging, for the now itinerant English National Opera, is Samuel West's first opera production, and you can't help but feel that the piece has defeated him in his turn.
Instead of probing beneath the work's layers of artifice, West gradually dispenses with them. He relocates the opera to the present day, setting it among the European smart-set holidaying on the Mediterranean. Initially, West strikes the right note, exposing the double standards that govern men's and women's sexual behaviour. Ferrando and Guglielmo may be hatching schemes to test the fidelity of Fiordiligi and Dorabella, though they are also not averse to groping Alfonso's maids when their girlfriends' backs are turned. Alfonso creeps about, overseeing the proceedings like some seedy voyeur.
Yet as the men's schemes go out of control, West wrenches us away from Mozart. In act two, Fiordiligi snatches off Ferrando's disguise and accepts him as her lover, genuinely knowing who he is rather than believing him to be a stranger. The scene underscores the point that emotional games have turned into bitter reality, but it also fatally rewrites the plot, and from that moment on the staging and the work begin to part company. The denouement becomes meaningless if the multiple disguises have been exposed beforehand.
Musically, the evening is also uneven. The great performances come from Andrew Shore as Alfonso and Alison Roddy as Despina, both of them suggesting painful emotional pasts that have led to present cynicism. Mary Plazas sounds gorgeous as Fiordiligi, and her duets with Victoria Simmonds's bright-toned Dorabella are exceptionally ravishing. As Guglielmo, Toby Stafford-Allen barks a bit, though Colin Lee is an exemplary Ferrando, spinning out his arias with exquisite ease. Mark Wigglesworth's conducting, however, leaves a certain amount to be desired. There are odd gear changes in his tempi. He cuts the choruses on the grounds that they detract from the "intensely intimate and personal nature of the piece", though the architecture of the second act finale comes apart as a result. The orchestral sound in the Barbican theatre is frequently muffled and coordination between stage and pit sometimes slipshod.
· In rep until October 11. Box office: 0845 120 7500.
