Mozart Così fan tutte opera to libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Directed 2010 by Jonathan Miller at the Royal Opera House. Stars Pavlov Breslik (Ferrando), Stéphane Degout (Guglielmo), Thomas Allen (Don Alfonso), Maria Bengtsson (Fiordiligi), Jurgita Adamonyté (Dorabella), and Rebecca Evans (Despina). Thomas Hengelbrock conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House (Co-Concert Master Sergey Levitin; Fortepiano Continuo Christopher Wilis) and the Royal Opera Chorus (Chorus Director Renato Balsadonna; Chorus Director for this Revival Stephen Westrop). Set design by Jonathan Miller with Tim Blazdell, Andrew Jameson, Colin Maxwell, Catherine Smith, and Anthony Waterman; costume design by Sabine Lemaïtre in collaboration with Jonathan Miler; lighting design by Jonathan Miller and John Charlton. Directed for TV by Robin Lough. Sung in Italian. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: D
This title, released in 2021, was recorded in 2010, so it’s an old-timer. In fact, it was an old-timer near the end of the line in 2010! This production harks back all the way to 1995, and the show you see on this disc was the seventh revival of the Jonathan Miller production. (Miller died in 2019 at age 85.) Director Miller was noted for updating older works to “last Thursday afternoon.” But as Mark Pullinger points out in his August 2021 Gramophone review (pages 78-79), last Thursday afternoon is now 26 years ago (2021-1995=26). It’s dated. It has some excellent stars from yesteryear including Sir Thomas Allen, who owned the role of Don Alfonso for a while, and Rebecca Evans, who was considered a definitive Despina. PQ is probably OK for early HDVD. We have several wonderful versions of Così fan tutte already, and there’s always room for more. But I’m grading this D based on Pullinger’s comments. You would be better off not investing in this unless you have a special reason such as, say, a keen interest in the portrayals by one or more of the stars.
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