What’s that you say? You don’t know much about opera and you don’t think it’s for you?
Well, let me tell you, it is for you, as English National Opera (ENO) admirably demonstrated with its splendid performance of Così fan tutte at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall.
A comic opera written by Mozart, Così fan tutte is about two engaged couples who embark on a whirlwind weekend of comical confusion, passion and infidelity. See, I told you opera was for you. In this staging, Naples of 1790 is cleverly transformed into 1950s’ Coney Island, with the girls, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, in bobby socks and swishy A-line dresses, and the boys, Ferrando and Guglielmo, first in their naval uniforms and later in turned-up jeans and biker jackets.
Ferrando and Guglielmo (Joshua Blue and Darwin Prakash) meet the deliciously devious Don Alfonso, clad loud and proud in a garish, yellow zoot suit, and played with admirable aplomb by Andrew Foster-Williams. The Don is a player, with a poor opinion of women, and he’s not impressed with the boys’ claims that their fiancées are pure and faithful.
Drink is taken, everyone becomes braggadocious, and a bet is made that under Alfonso’s strict direction the boys can disprove their own supposition by disguising themselves and seducing each other’s fiancée. The boys’ crisp uniforms are replaced by 1950s’ greaser outfits and the seduction begins.
© Matthew Johnson
But how could all this dress up tomfoolery fool anyone? Well, a pair of specs worked for Clark Kent and anyway, this is opera, it lives by different rules.
The girls, Fiordiligi and Dorabella (Lucy Crowe and Taylor Raven) find themselves the subject of a bit of attempted fiancée swapping, which slowly but surely starts to hit the mark. In this Alfonso is assisted by Despina, the maid of dissolution, and Alish Tynan’s scene stealing performance was an absolute joy to behold.
This was a magical evening with performances that were simply splendid; by turn tickling funny bones, bringing tears to eyes and delighting even the most experienced opera fans by doing wonderful things with the human voice that simply shouldn’t be possible. Whether it was Crowe’s heartbreaking rendition of Fiordiligi’s shame at her temptation or Raven’s sultry celebration of her own burgeoning sexuality, or the power and pathos in the performances of Blue and Prakash, each held the audience spellbound.
But you’ve always heard that opera and opera people are a bit dull? Consider this: the libretto (that’s opera speak for the spoken words and songs) for Così fan tutte was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte, who was, to say the least, quite a character. Born in Venice in 1749 where he was ordained as a Catholic priest, he became a poet and a close friend of Casanova.
© Matthew Johnson
In 1779, he was banished from Venice for leading a highly dissolute life. Allegations that he’d been living in a brothel and organising in-house entertainments didn’t help, nor did assertions of a long-time mistress with whom he had two children. Da Ponte next popped up in Austria where he became the poet and librettist to the court of Emperor Joseph II. He earned a stack of cash, became pals with Mozart, and began writing words for Mozart’s wildly successful operas.
With the death of Mozart and the Emperor, Da Ponte moved to London with a new mistress with whom he had five more children. He became a grocer, wrote more successful operas, earned another stack of cash, spent it, and fled to America with his creditors hot on his heels. In New York, he opened a bookstore, became the first Catholic priest to be appointed to the faculty at Columbia, and, aged 84, opened the first opera house in America. So you see, while opera and opera folk may be many things, dull isn’t one of them.
Back in Manchester, this was a semi-staged performance. The scene was skilfully set by Andrew Joel and the orchestra, and by the costumes, props and lighting departments for which special credit is due to Ruth Knight, Laura Hopkins, and Laura Sprake.
This is the first time that ENO has performed an opera at The Bridgewater Hall, which this year is celebrating its 30th anniversary. It’s also the beginning of an ongoing relationship between the two organisations, as the ENO establishes itself within Manchester’s cultural landscape.
If you’re still unsure about opera, I earnestly hope that 2026 will also see the beginning of an ongoing relationship between you and ENO as it progress with its relocation to Manchester.
Main photo by Matthew Johnson
