Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Lorenzo da Ponte
Director: Jenny Miller
Barefoot Opera’s offering for this year’s Grimeborn Opera Festival at the Arcola Theatre is its production of Così fan tutte?! The winking punctuation hints at something new, perhaps a cheeky updating or even a radical reinterpretation of Mozart’s original. When Don Alfonso appears in a scientist’s white coat, clutching a clipboard, it looks as if we’re in for a forensic exploration of the work’s teasing premise that ‘all women are like that’. But this promising start is never fully developed and more or less disappears. In the end, director Jenny Miller goes for conventional charm.
The very young cast are a pleasing ensemble from which the soloists emerge. The others act as a kind of cheery Greek chorus, a tight-knit group who do everything from muttering convincingly in Italian to writhing acrobatically in reaction to the tribulations of the protagonists.
Katerina Oikonomou gives the stand-out performance as Fiordiligi, bereft when her lover Guglielmo departs for war. With her rich soprano voice and commanding presence, she convincingly repels the advances of a potential suitor who is, of course, Guglielmo’s fellow trickster Ferrando. Her sister Dorabella (a likeable Ilona Nastase) is similarly faced with seduction by none other than Guglielmo.
Unknown to them, the two young men are taking part in a wager set by Don Alfonso to disprove his theory that all women are fickle. Da Ponte imagined them disguised as Albanians. Here they are hippies, with cool shades and dropping moustaches. Isaac Conibear is an appealingly comic Guglielmo. Bartosz Thiede, his sidekick Ferrando, is particularly touching in the crucial transformation from larky young man to heartsick lover when he finally manages to seduce Fiordiligi. Joel Robson as Don Alfonso grows in strength in the course of the performance. Zara Donaldson is a thoroughly lively Despina, revelling in the manipulations of her social superiors.
The company is clearly operating on a shoestring budget, so there’s little by way of set, and the costumes, stored in cotton bags hanging from a coat stand, are pretty basic. None of this matters much, but it’s a pity there wasn’t investment in the musical accompaniment. Previous Grimeborn productions have often run to a small band of musicians offering lively arrangements, sometimes with period instruments. Here music director Lesley Anne Sammons gamely races her way through the whole thing on keyboard with only a double bass for variety. It all feels a bit thin, especially so in the two points for which stirring military music is called for. Having said that, the overall singing is lively and appealing.
Runs until 25 July 2026
The Reviews Hub Star Rating
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6
