Mozart: Così fan tutte, K588

“superbly cast, with not a weak link. Bo Skovhus, as a central Mephistophelian operator de nos jours, plays a savage dance-driven double-act with Patricia Petibon's red-haired biker of a Despina...Within a single, minimalist duplex apartment interior, illusion and disillusion constantly shift.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2010 ****

“Guth has drawn marvellously natural acting from this cast (the hammy Despina excepted)...this opera's sisters have never been more gorgeous to behold...The ultra-suave Skovhus's Don Alfonso is a very cool customer indeed, full of cynicism and self-satisfaction...Playing with extreme beauty and technical mastery but not without incisiveness, the Vienna Philharmonic responds aptly to every dramatic nuance.” International Record Review, November 2010

“Guth is deft at choreographing the pain and the embarrassment of "wrong" couples getting together...this is already a mighty contribution to the otherwise rather naturalistic Così filmography. Its musical performances are solid...its acting ones much more than that.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2011

“Daniel Barenboim is here at his best, conducting a penetrating, idiomatic account of this astonishing score, and never missing a chance for pathos or wit...Hanno Müller-Brachmann...is tremendous as Guglielmo...The Fiordiligi of Dorothea Röschmann is another electrifying performance.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 ****

“within its own perameters, Dörrie's production is slick and zanily stylish, with plenty of visual comedy...Barenboim chooses predictably unhurried tempi and is keenly responsive to the music's wit. All six soloists are personable and throw themselves eagerly into Dörrie's 1970s revamp.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2010

“At Glyndebourne, both Despina and Alfonso are played traditionally and with notable brio by Garmendia and Rivenq… the delightful Persson and Vondung make a wholly believable and vocally attractive Fiordiligi and Dorabella, and deliver their music in ideal Mozartian tone and style. ...Fischer conducts with an unassumingly correct sense of timing: brio nicely matched to loving attention to detail.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2007

“When I saw this production at Glyndebourne last May, I thought that it was one of the three perfect operatic performances that I have ever been to. That view is only strengthened by seeing this marvellous DVD, which does the fullest justice to the brilliance of Nicholas Hytner's production, and the glorious orchestral playing and the magnificent singing under Iván Fischer. ..the whole opera is both more funny and more painful, much more painful, than it usually is. We are left at the end bewildered by the treachery of the human heart and delighted by the beauty in the music with which Mozart brings this home to us.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2007 *****

“Dressed in shades of sand and stone by Vicki Mortimer, and bathed in summer light by Paule Constable, Hytner’s period production marries elegance, farce and psychological acuity.” The Independent

“Hytner on Opus Arte succeeded on every front, bringing out the fine qualities of the whole cast, both vocally and dramatically, brilliantly supported by Ivan Fischer...Starriest of all is Miah Persson as Fiordiligi, singing gloriously with pure, even tone...The teamwork as ever at Glyndebourne is superb” Penguin Guide, 2010 ****

“Since 1934 when Glyndebourne revived this then-neglected work and began its run of success it has presented a succession of exemplary stagings all within the parameters of da Ponte's libretto. When this, the latest, was produced it was universally hailed: as faithful a representation of the equivocal comedy as one could wish. That's confirmed by this DVD. Both Despina and Alfonso are played traditionally and with notable brio by Garmendia and Rivenq. The delightful Persson and Vondung make a wholly believable and vocally attractive Fiordiligi and Dorabella, and deliver their music in ideal Mozartian tone and style. Similarly Lehtipuu is a charming and wide-eyed Ferrando and Pisaroni a warm-voiced and personal Guglielmo. They both woo with seductive charm. As reviews at the time reported, Fischer conducts with an unassumingly correct sense of timing and has the inestimable advantage of the OAE's period instruments.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“At Glyndebourne, both Despina and Alfonso are played traditionally and with notable brio by Garmendia and Rivenq… the delightful Persson and Vondung make a wholly believable and vocally attractive Fiordiligi and Dorabella, and deliver their music in ideal Mozartian tone and style. ...Fischer conducts with an unassumingly correct sense of timing: brio nicely matched to loving attention to detail.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2007

“When I saw this production at Glyndebourne last May, I thought that it was one of the three perfect operatic performances that I have ever been to. That view is only strengthened by seeing this marvellous DVD, which does the fullest justice to the brilliance of Nicholas Hytner's production, and the glorious orchestral playing and the magnificent singing under Iván Fischer. ..the whole opera is both more funny and more painful, much more painful, than it usually is. We are left at the end bewildered by the treachery of the human heart and delighted by the beauty in the music with which Mozart brings this home to us.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2007 *****

“Dressed in shades of sand and stone by Vicki Mortimer, and bathed in summer light by Paule Constable, Hytner’s period production marries elegance, farce and psychological acuity.” The Independent

“Since 1934 when Glyndebourne revived this then-neglected work and began its run of success it has presented a succession of exemplary stagings all within the parameters of da Ponte's libretto. When this, the latest, was produced it was universally hailed: as faithful a representation of the equivocal comedy as one could wish. That's confirmed by this DVD.
Both Despina and Alfonso are played traditionally and with notable brio by Garmendia and Rivenq. The delightful Persson and Vondung make a wholly believable and vocally attractive Fiordiligi and Dorabella, and deliver their music in ideal Mozartian tone and style. Similarly Lehtipuu is a charming and wide-eyed Ferrando and Pisaroni a warm-voiced and personal Guglielmo.
They both woo with seductive charm.
As reviews at the time reported, Fischer conducts with an unassumingly correct sense of timing and has the inestimable advantage of the OAE's period instruments.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Hytner on Opus Arte succeeded on every front, bringing out the fine qualities of the whole cast, both vocally and dramatically, brilliantly supported by Ivan Fischer...Starriest of all is Miah Persson as Fiordiligi, singing gloriously with pure, even tone...The teamwork as ever at Glyndebourne is superb” Penguin Guide, 2010 ****

“Patrice Chéreau's production is full of strokes of near-genius from old (Chéreau, his regular set designer Richard Peduzzi, his photogenic Don Alfonso, Ruggero Raimondi), not so old (Barbara Bonney's unhackneyed Despina) and new (Daniel Harding – a thrilling Mozart conductor on the wing – Elina Garanca's Dorabella, and the men) but, at least as filmed here, is often less than the sum of its parts.
In Act 1 Chéreau and Peduzzi rely too often on clichés. The fact that they're their own clichés – an aesthetic that they invented – may only worry those who know their stagings well.
They design an empty theatrical space with 18th-century Noh theatre actors as providers of props and furniture and a huge (and distracting) 'No Smoking' instruction on the back wall, perhaps a reference to their first Mozart success in early-1970s Spoleto. Blocking tics from the Bayreuth Ring and other shows abound – the chain of people going nowhere just before the boys leave for supposed military service, the painters' scaffold that takes them there, the endless running around and singing in the 'wrong' directions. All the while, there's a very serious intent here and a studiedly conscious recreation of 18th-century patterns in both costumes (Caroline de Vivaise) and movement that compels admiration.
After the interval Chereau, always a compelling observer of sexual love, comes into his element.
The comic/erotic balance of the boys' success with the others' girls is brilliantly detailed. The 18th-century quotes seem more integrated. The last scene – helped by Bonney's well-acted shock and breakdown when Despina realises she's been duped too – is dark but, significantly, not twisted out of shape to fit an intellectual conceit. All end up in a kind of exhausted, nervous embrace.
Musically, things are also mixed. The best of Harding's Così is as earthily thrilling (and pungent) as his Giovanni and recent Zauberflöte; elsewhere this is work-in-progress, but his Klemperer-on-original-instruments approach is appealing. Erin Wall is stretched by both Fiordiligi's big set-pieces but acts them with conviction. Raimondi compensates for an inevitable lack of pure voice by charismatic phrasing and acting. The men are good – a nice combination of character and virtuosity; Garanca and Bonney are exceptional.
Mixed down by Arte TV channel from four live performances (and filmed rather bumpily), the soundtrack does not always sync with what you see, but it's a distraction you soon forget.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Muti's fizzing (1983) Salzburg Festival recording is fully traditional and visually a delight, with elegant sets and costumes...It is good to watch a completely fresh performance that carries out Mozart's intentions visually as well as musically. The recording itself is very lively and open, the voices resonant.” Penguin Guide, 2010 ****

“When this staging was presented in 1992, in various theatres, Gardiner decided to be his own director because he didn't trust any available alternative to be faithful to Da Ponte's and Mozart's original. In the circumstances his was a sensible decision because his deeply discerning stage interpretation perfectly seconds his own musically perceptive reading. His keen understanding of what this endlessly fascinating work is about is made plain in his absorbing essay in the booklet.
The first advantage of this film of the opera is Carlo Tommasi's ravishing décor that accords with what the libretto predicates, conjuring before our eyes 18th-century Naples overlooked by Vesuvius. Then Gardiner's direction makes all-too-clear the emotional turmoil engineered by Don Alfonso's cynical plans to test the ladies' constancy. At all times it's responsive to the music, except when members of the cast march through the stalls and when certain scenes are more sexually explicit than would have been contemplated in Mozart's age.
Amanda Roocroft's Fiordiligi is intrepidly sung, her tone always firm and gleaming, and she acts expressively. She's partnered, as originally intended, by a soprano Dorabella. Rosa Mannion proves an apt foil for her sister, and is deliciously flighty when falling for her 'Albanian' lover.
Rainer Trost is the young, fluent, eager Ferrando who makes the most of his taxing music, although his second aria, 'Ah! lo veggio', is here excluded.
His vulnerable portrayal is a nice contrast to Rodney Gilfry's macho Guglielmo. The four voices blend well in the many ensembles.
In the pit, Gardiner's direct, big-scale yet sensitive conducting is the engine-room of the performance, superbly sustained by his periodinstrument band. Peter Mumford's video direction is faultless; so is the sound picture. All in all, it would be amazing if any successor surpasses this DVD's achievements on all sides.
Recommended without reservation.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The traditional approach to staging nicely matches the freshness and imagination of the period performance, with uniforms from the Napoleonic period and Ferrando and Guglielmo in disguise dressed identifiably as Albanians...Visually, the whole production consistently heightens the impact of the opera” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***