Così fan tutte

Cosi Fan Tutte is not just one of Mozart's finest operas, but also one of my favourites full-stop. It is a lot of fun as well as being psychologically complex and some of Mozart's most beautiful ever music is to be found in the trio Soave Sia Il Vento and the Guglielmo-Dorabella duet Il Core Vi Dono. While I have seen several outstanding Cosis like the 1994, 2000, 1992, 1988 and 2006 productions, this 1970 production promised much with one of the starriest line-ups of any Cosi production and proved to be one of my favourite versions.

Visually, you would expect a sumptuous production, and you get that exactly here. It is a very traditional production, with some of the most beautiful settings of any Cosi Fan Tutte I've seen(the 1992 and the 1988 Jean Pierre Ponnelle film are also beautiful-looking versions) and really colourful costumes. Ferrando and Guglielmo's turbans were especially so without looking too garish. The colour is sharp and helps bring the production to vibrant life, while the camera work never feels dull or dizzying(one of the few negative things I've to say about Jean Pierre Ponnelle's 1975 Le Nozze Di Figaro for example).

Musically, it is just as sublime. Soave Sia Il Vento and Il Core Vi Dono are the very definition of operatic heaven with nimble and very sensitive orchestral playing, while arias like Donna Meie La Fate Tanti is full of energetic verve from an orchestral standpoint. As well as stylish, the orchestra play with attention to musicianship and intonation. I have always liked Karl Bohm, especially in Richard Strauss, and thought he did a good job here. There have been times where I have found his Mozart plodding(Champagne Aria in 1977's Salzburg Don Giovanni), but not so much here. I for one loved the lush romantic approach, and didn't mind any cuts that were made(I've heard worse cases since).

The sound could've done with more clarity, but it is not too muffled either, and makes the blending voices very harmonious indeed. When it comes to the staging, again I found it engaging and intuitive, almost feeling very spontaneous in how everyone on stage interacts. The lip-synching has always been mixed in result in filmed opera, and while there is the idea of people not moving their mouths when singing I didn't get the sense that the lip movements were ahead or behind the singing. In my mind that's a good thing. The cast and performances are superb.

Gundula Janowitz's voice was always of a beautiful and silvery quality, whether in Srauss or in Mozart. Her appealingly dignified Fiordiligi is no exception, and she sings her music with very affecting musicality. She also has much to do physically, but never lets that phase her. She contrasts wonderfully with mezzo Christa Ludwig, whose singing as Dorabella is both firm and agile with many degrees of warmth also and the interpretation sparkling and sympathetic.Luigi Alva is a charming Ferrando, with one of the most heart-melting renditions of Un Aura Amarosa I've ever heard. Like with Hermann Prey, he shines in his comic timing and their chemistry likewise.

Prey, one of the finest ever Figaros to me(Rossini and Mozart) sings with his usual powerful tone and is suitably hearty, ideal for the more gloating characteristics of Donna Meie...Olivera Miljakovic is the principal I was least familiar with, and I did find her a witty and clever Despina, Una Donna Di Quindicci Anni is suitably coquettish and not too shrill vocally. Walter Berry is a wonderfully world-weary and cynical Alfonso, singing sonorously and with a great sense of story-telling. Overall, a sublime Cosi Fan Tutte. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Václav Kaslik directed this popular co-production of Da Ponte and Mozart. The question of the faithfulness of women and the mistrust of men, are the key in the libretto. I do not know of course how the opening night in 1790 was performed but this recording of the Salzburger Festspiele in 1969 is of a better amateur production. There is a basic rule for performing a comedy: take it absolutely serious! The wonderful humor and weakness of the characters are in the libretto and score; no need to overdo it in acting or funny faces.

Karl Böhm directs and has -much to my surprise- good and fast tempi most of the time; which is a nice change from his slow and Wagnerian style of conducting -although Böhm made a few cuts in the music (i.e. Finale act I) and I don't understand those decisions. If Mozart would have wanted things cut out of his score, he would have done it himself! And he didn't, so leave it like it is please.

The singing with orchestra is done by play-back and the singers have a lot of trouble with that (the recitativa are done life) but I do keep in mind it was 1969 and in classical music the lip-sinc was not that common yet. Especially Gundula Janowitz (Dorabella) just opens and closes her mouth at random. Christa Ludwig tries to make something out of her Fiordiligi but is only partially successful as her acting skills lack interpretation. Alva and Prey are not convincing as Ferrando and Guglielmo; they behave more like bored students with nothing else to do than to manipulate women. I was pleasantly surprised by Walter Berry's Alfonso as his faces muscles where not making so much overtime as usual. Olivera Miljakovic is quite nice as Despina but that is of course a grateful part. Her pitch as Notary was not an octave lower as in the score but higher! Again I question Böhms decision in this. Why o why?

The staging was compensation for lack of understanding what the opera is about. Kaslik had no idea what to do, so he gave the poor singers so much work to do that decent acting and singing was impossible. The 'plot' is not that women turn to other man the moment their fiancés are gone but about betrayal, mistrust, insecurity and human weaknesses. For all parties involved, not just the women.

Pieter