Bittersweet triumph of joy and tears
THe annual Glyndebourne Tour traditionally moves away from the singing stars of the ritzy summer festival to introduce us to some fresh faces that we may not be familiar with.
Talent spotters love the Tour — and, boy, do they get their money’s worth with Cosi.
All six protagonists (three making their Glyndebourne debuts) fit beautifully into their roles to present a seamless, gloriously sung ensemble.
Mozart’s bittersweet comedy of errors is here — as it must be — delightfully funny and achingly painful. But then Nicholas Hytner’s masterly, 11-year- old production (now, apparently, on its final outing — catch it while you can) is a theatrical tour de
force that always touches the breaking heart of this harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Mozart’s so-called ‘School for Lovers’ is a ravishing treatise on the frailty of love. And Hytner explores the pain behind the carefree passion as two young bucks cruelly test the fidelity of their fiancées by wooing them in disguise for a bet. It’s a misogynistic game of deceit that will go horribly wrong.
And so to this terrific cast. Ukrainian tenor Bogdan Volkov and Russian baritone Ilya Kutyukhin exude exuberant sex appeal as those lusty masqueraders Ferrando and Guglielmo.
Canadian soprano Kirsten MacKinnon and Irish mezzosoprano Rachel Kelly are beguilingly sensitive as their vulnerable sweethearts Fiordiligi and Dorabella; Portuguese singers José Fardilha and Ana Quintans keep the comedy on the boil as the cynical manipulators Don Alfonso and Despina.
Mozart’s exquisite score is stylishly played under British conductor Leo McFall.
It all ends happily. Or does it? The final looks that the newly reunited lovers exchange as the curtain falls suggest nothing will be quite the same again.