Così fan tutte

Conductor Thomas Hengelbrock makes a confident house début
and
presents the work as a cohesive entity rather than the parade of set
pieces we sometimes
hear. There have been evenings when the lengthy running time, shared
among just
six singers, has felt like a surfeit of sweetmeats; here, though, three
and a
half hours fly by. The odd plodding tempo early on is entirely forgotten
by the
interval as hints of tension (perhaps occasioned by the first night’s
worldwide
cinema relay?) give way to a transcendent second half.

Not that Thomas Allen was feeling camera-shy on
opening
night. Moments before taking to the stage as Don Alfonso, the
arch-manipulator
who poisons the trust between two pairs of devoted lovers, the great
baritone
gave an affable curtain speech to herald the new ROH season. Then, voice
undimmed, he treated himself – and the audience – to a masterclass of
upstaging
and scene-stealing in a role he knows like the back of his hand.

Rebecca Evans is Allen’s match as his wily gopher
Despina,
her vocal timbre a pleasing complement to the Dorabella of Jurgita
Adamonytè
(in far better voice than last time I heard her) and the Fiordiligi of
Maria
Bengtsson. Evans makes the most of her disguises as a quack doctor and a
fake
judge, and she’s even more entertaining with her furtives slurps of
Starbuck’s
hot chocolate and her ability to sing through a mouthful of doughnut.

Miller’s modern-dress concept is a gift for the two
male
principals, who exchange Armani for army clobber before spending most of
the
evening in full-on hippy garb. The potential for physical comedy is
fulfilled
in spades by Stéphane Degout as Guglielmo; his agility and comic timing
must
have made the director purr during rehearsals. Degout’s wit, timbre and
romantic presence are tailor-made for Mozart, and this interpretation
comes
close to matching his outstanding Papageno.

If the Slovak Pavol Breslik is less natural a
comedian, he
certainly has a dynamic and athletic stage presence. How many other
singers
could perform a Mozart aria while doing press-ups? Breslik has a
pleasing tenor
voice, but his characterisation of Ferrando is compromised by a slightly
bland
delivery.

In Maria Bengtsson, though, the ROH has found a
shining
star. While the production as a whole sometimes loses sight of the young
women’s
heartbreak, preoccupied as it is with sight gags, the Swedish soprano
never flinches
from its depiction. From her hushed singing of the Ave
verum
phrase in the Act One quintet ‘Di scrivermi’ to the pin-drop intensity
of Fiordiligi’s
great ‘Per Pietà’ aria in Act Two, Bengtsson leaves the listener rapt.

– Mark Valencia