Cosi fan Tutte is an opera full of humour and wonderful music – but it is notoriously difficult nowadays to find an acceptable way to tell the story of the deception and humiliation of two young women. Barefoot Opera makes a brave stab at solving the problem – and comes up with some ingenious ideas – but the ending is, as ever, both cruel and barely credible. The idea of Don Alfonso as a social scientist carrying out experiments in human behaviour is never quite carried through – and the conflict between Da Ponte’s misogynistic libretto and Mozart’s humane and beautiful music remains unresolved.
The action is set in a laboratory where human behaviour is studied. Guglielmo and Ferrando are young men in love with two young women, Fiordiligi and Dorabella. Don Alfonso, who runs the lab, suggests that their lovers may not be perfect – “are they angels or are they flesh and blood?” He persuades the men to join in a cruel ruse to test the women’s fidelity. They pretend to depart for war, then return in disguise and attempt to seduce them. Don Alfonso is assisted by the girls’ maid, Despina, who argues against celibacy and obedience and for women’s freedom to love as they choose. After much absurd game-playing, the deception succeeds and the young women accept the disguised pair as lovers. When the experiment ends and the deception is unmasked, the chastened quartet realise that real lasting love has to be based not on romantic fantasies but on a solid grounding of knowledge and trust, but whether they will recapture their affection for each other is left up in the air.
There are six singers and three ‘ensemble members’ who provide a little singing and a lot of supporting action. Outstanding is Katerina Oikonomou as Fiordiligi. She has an interesting CV, including work with Marina Abramovic, and her dramatic powers are well to the fore here, coupled with a clear soprano that easily compasses the range Mozart demands of this role. Her sister Dorabella is sung by Mahtab Ghamsari and, although she has a fine voice, there were signs that the ensemble work needed more time to reach its full potential. Oscar Castellino was Guglielmo, the more bumptious of the two lovers and, especially in his disguise, his character was full of misplaced self-confidence, which turned convincingly to anger in the finale. Tenor Bartosz Thiele sang Ferrando and, like all the other singers, tailored his performance with sensitivity to the Arcola space and delivered his Aura Amorosa aria with gentle sweetness. As scientist/trickster Don Alfonso, Joel Robson had the voice and the gravitas to anchor the action and deliver the young lovers to the trials that they had to face. As Despina, Zara Donaldson found just the right balance of tact and steel as she tried to guide the women away from their romantic fantasies. Lesley Anne Sammons at a keyboard and Amy Baldwin with a double bass provided a surprisingly effective version of the score.
Studio 1 at the Arcola Theatre is an unusual space, offering some benefits and some disadvantages. It is small and intimate, so the singers can establish a real link with the audience, and the music doesn’t need big voices. But the layout (new since last year) doesn’t offer an obvious spot for those playing instruments – and the sight-lines to the surtitles screens are not good for everyone.
Director Jenny Miller provided a striking stage picture at the start, with all the singers clustered together in a heap centre-stage and a white-coated Don Alfonso at a desk planning his experiment. The three ensemble members – who alternate singing main roles on other nights – acted sometimes as a chorus and sometimes as living scenery. But as the story progressed, their role became less clear and sometimes obscured the story rather than drove it forward. The “fresh take on the effervescent comedy” promised never really materialised.
Despite these caveats, the beauty of Mozart’s music and the energy of the young performers provided plenty of pleasure for all of us who headed down to Dalston. There is lots more to see and enjoy at Grimeborn 2026.
Venue: Arcola Theatre, Dalston
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto: Lorenzo Da Ponte
Music Director: Lesley Anne Sammons
Director: Jenny Miller
Performers incl: Katerina Oikonomou, Oscar Castellino, Joel Robson
Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Dates: Until 25 July