Richard Bratby

Homework, not theatre: WNO’s Cosi fan tutte reviewed

Plus: Bryn Terfel brings a lieder-singer’s sensitivity to the Royal Opera's Flying Dutchman

Egor Zhuravskii (Ferrando), Sophie Bevan (Fiordiligi), Kayleigh Decker (Dorabella) and James Atkinson (Guglielmo) in Welsh National Opera's Cosi. Photo: Elliott Franks  
issue 09 March 2024

Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte hasn’t always been taken seriously. In fact for much of the 19th century it wasn’t even reckoned to be very good (Donald Tovey described its characters as ‘humanly speaking, rubbish’). For the modern director, there are several potential approaches. One – the hardest – is to try and evoke in the audience an approximation of a late-18th-century mindset.

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