Mozart - Cosi fan tutte
Stowe Opera 7 August 2005

Fiordiligi - Simone Sauphanor
Dorabella - Yvonne Fontane
Despina – Rebekah Coffey

Ferrando - Nicholas Ransley
Gugliemo - Adrian Powter
Don Alphonso - Simon Wilding

(Photo: John Credland)

Conductor - Robert Secret
Director - Yvonne Fontane
Designer & Lighting - Ian McKillop

We always look forward to our annual visit to Stowe Opera and its delightful parkland setting. For us the pleasure begins with the journey, a leisurely drive on country roads through the Chilterns and Vale of Aylesbury. Finally we pass through the newly restored gateway and see in front of us the first of the long carriage drives. Stowe Park (now maintained by The National Trust) was laid out by William Kent in the 18th century in the new informal style and is decorated with numerous ornamental buildings by Vanbrugh, Kent and Gibbs, and loosely contemporary with the opera we were about to see.

But of course Cosi fan tutte is an opera where the libretto contains few fixtures of time and place, it is the interaction between the characters that drives the plot, and consequently directors usually take the opportunity to update and relocate it whatever time and place takes their fancy.

In this case we are in the modern world of the business professional, who use flip charts to explain their theories, refer to notebook PCs and communicate by mobile phone. We are told that Don Alfonso is a cynical middle-aged actor friend, who brings a colourful touch to the proceedings. Despina is a liberated individual, she may mow the lawn but she is adept in ensuring that it is Don Alfonso who always collects up the dirty glasses.

Proceedings get off to a fairly slow start, it is the morning of the lovers' wedding day and the men sit around the breakfast table with newspapers . . . are they really committed to marriage? The bet is laid [pictured] and they are summoned away on invented business, whilst their distraught fiancées immerse themselves in their own work as a palliative.

In due course the men turn up disguised as sailors. All the disguises are nautical, and increasingly outrageous. Scene changes are achieved deftly and the narrative is played out until rightful identities are resumed, and the consequences of the deception revealed.

The Director, Yvonne Fontane also sings the role of Dorabella and obviously relishes the dual challenge. The "quartet" were evenly balanced and their voices blend attractively. Adrian Powter (Gugliemo) Ferrando had perhaps the clearest diction, Simone Sauphanor (Fiordiligi), despite a couple of uncertain moments treated us to some delicious singing and Rebekah Coffey gave a particularly lively account of Despina.

Robert Secret, the festival's director conducted the largish orchestra with a firm beat though at times we felt they were in danger of over-powering the singers.

During the winter the theatre has been improved with a new seating layout. Sight lines are now good and leg space is comfortable. There is no compulsion to leave after matinee performances and picnics were resumed under the horse chestnuts. Time to consider the questionnaire found inside each copy of the programme encouraging the audience to help choose next year's opera. What interesting pieces we are tempted with: Fidelio, Alceste, Samson and Dalila, Moniuszko's Halka, or Dvorak's Kate and the Devil to name but a few, and of course there is space for other suggestions.

Serena Fenwick