Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Lorenzo Da Ponte translation by Jeremy Sams
Director: Ruth Knight
Conductor: Alexander Joel
Despite bitter arguments the English National Opera (ENO) was forced to comply with the instruction to relocate from London to Manchester. However, as opera companies plan their schedules years in advance there are practical limitations on how quickly the change in location can be implemented. So far, therefore, the company has been able to make only quick visits to the region. At least this gives the ENO the chance to sample the features of the various venues in the area.
The Bridgewater Hall is a concert, rather than a theatrical, venue and so lacks an orchestra pit – musicians perform onstage and the chorus in the Choir Seats all in plain sight of the audience. As half the stage is taken up by the orchestra tonight’s performance of Mozart’s Così fan tutte is a semi-staged concert version. The main casualty of this approach is the set so the audience has to guess the setting for the opera based upon the costumes and the very limited props. Although promoted as a concert performance the cast are active rather than static; acting out scenes instead of standing still and singing direct to the audience. The emphasis is, therefore, on performance rather than concert.
In a fairground in 1950’s America naval officers Ferrando (Joshua Blue) and Guglielmo (Darwin Prakash) are engaged to, respectively, Dorabella (Taylor Raven) and Fiordiligi (Lucy Crowe). Wide boy Don Alfonso (Andrew Foster-Williams) argues there is no such thing as a faithful woman and bets the officers he can prove their fiancées, like all women, are fickle. Don Alfonso has the officers pretend they have been called to active duty and then return in disguise and each attempt to seduce the other’s lover. When the initial attempt does not prove Don Alfonso’s point he tries more extreme methods with the aid of chambermaid Despina (Ailish Tynan). Finally, Dorabella and Fiordiligi succumb to temptation and become attracted to each other’s disguised fiancé which wins the bet for Don Alfonso but has potentially emotionally devastating consequences for the lovers.
The ENO, as the name suggests, perform in English which may irritate purists but tonight allows the witty translation, full of wordplay and puns, by Jeremy Sams to be appreciated. Whether it is due to the acoustics of the venue or the peerless diction of the singers the words are clear as a bell rendering the over-the-stage surtitles largely redundant.
Director Ruth Knight works against expectations; far from being grand the setting is seedy. Andrew Foster-Williams’s Don Alfonso is not a sophisticated jaded roué but a spiv in two-tone shoes. Ferrando and Guglielmo leave their smart naval uniforms and return in disguise as a pair of leather-jacketed bikers.
Knight pursues broad humour- disguised as a man Despina struggles to retain her false moustache. The chorus belt out a patriotic farewell to the army while waving tiny flags which undercut the passionate fervour of their song. As the orchestra plays the overture Don Alfonso and Despina reveal the title of the opera on a banner they unfurl and promptly drop. When Don Alfonso wins his bet he produces the banner a second time as if making sure the audience gets the point.
Knight exploits all aspects of the venue except the organ. A key emotional moment is Lucy Crowe singing an aria not onstage but in lonely isolation in the Choir Seats.
The unpleasant sexism of the title suggesting women are by nature untrustworthy is mitigated to demonstrate women simply want to enjoy the liberties which men take for granted.
Semi-staged concerts are inevitably a compromise so it might be best to treat the current version of of Così fan tutte as a tasty preview of what can be expected when /if the ENO can commit to bringing fully staged productions to Manchester. The ENO must be impressed by The Bridgewater Hall as a return visit to stage Offenbach’s rarely performed Barkouf with The Hallé and Opera Rara is already scheduled for 4th October, 2026.
Runs 27th and 28th February 2026
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This concert performance is more than likely the way that ENO deliver on their exile from St Marins Lane . Core repertory in scaled down performance and other more challenging work (Angel’s Bone, Einstein on the beach) at Aviva Studios. All the time with the hope that ACE and DCMS relent in the mean time. Before 2029.
The problem is they do not have a venue for full productions unless they explore the potential of Aviva Studios where the Warehouse and the Hall both are underused by conventional Lyric Theatre productions or the Lowry has available capacity.
Time is ticking and all we have is one date in May and one in 2027, and little or no idea of how, and what ENO in Gt Manchester will be. All much too tentative and hardly a positive response to what appeared when it was announced and still does feel like more a promise made in the hope it would be broken.
Those of us old enough to remember the yearly visits of years long gone can only wonder how what we can expect will in any way measure up to what we had then. But, that could also be said for the last few seasons at the Coliseum.