Lammermuir Festival: ‘Cosi fan Tutte’
Like a small cathedral, St Mary’s radiates an atmosphere of grandeur and tradition. The orchestra is tuning up, the rich sound of live instruments we have all been missing, far behind them, almost invisible, the chorus. On stage a few items of humble kitchen furniture. In front a sign saying ON AIR, which, as far as I know, we are not. The surtitles say, ‘Don Alfonso’s Game Show’. We are set for an evening of cultural splendour, oddly mixed with visual banalities.
The four lovers appear, all in black. They sing superbly but almost disappear against the dark stone of the church walls. I notice Dorabella is wearing a trouser suit. An in-joke about operatic “trouser roles”? Perhaps.
Don Alfonso’s (Michael Mofidian) bright embroidered jacket helps him to dominate the stage, along with his powerful bass voice and expressive body language. His beard does something to make him seem a little older than the lovers, as the libretto requires. Overall, a scheming Mephisto character.
The trio, ‘Soave sia il vento’ (Let the breeze be gentle) gives Dorabella, Fiordiligi and Don Alfonso an early opportunity to reveal their command of warm emotion in the midst of the farcical goings-on. They rise to it sublimely.
Fiordiligi (Charlie Drummond) then comes into her own with ‘Come scoglio immoto resta’, a solo declaration of her strength, In her voice, effortless gold.
Later, Ferrando (Shengzhi Ren) offers us another sublime moment of emotion, ‘Un'aura amorosa’ (A breath of love). We’ve already heard an easy flow in his voice; here that promise is fulfilled with honeyed serenity.
Act 1 closes with the full sextet, virtuoso composing meets virtuoso singing. The humour of this opera often seems a little daft, throwing into sharp relief the great arias so expressive of deep feeling.
In the interval we are told to stay seated. I glance around. It’s the usual demographic for classical events: a few grey heads indicate relative youth amongst the white-haired majority.
Early in Act 2 Dorabella and Guglielmo (Arthur Bruce) delight us a with a flirting dance duet, ‘Il core vi dono’. Another highlight is Fiordiligi’s solo of remorse that she is about to be unfaithful, "Per pietà, ben mio, perdona", a heart-rending message with her full vocal range. The mock wedding yields a quartet of powerful paradox; we know it’s all false and yet the music stirs our souls. The singers rise to it superbly.
A word about Despina (Catriona Hewitson). She looks suitably frumpish in quite awful check trews and sings with wit and delight. Her transformation into the notary really made me laugh.
And the chorus? As I said, almost out of sight, and with few moments in the score. How nice it would be for them to come into view for one or two of their big moments.
The finale brings the whole ensemble into full-throated praise of the spirit of Enlightenment; this despite Reason having been well and truly trounced by all the preceding vicissitudes: feminine inconstancy, masculine cavorting and aristocratic manipulation. What matter, when we’ve all had such a good time, both moved and amused by talents that link the centuries?
