Così fan tutte, Royal Opera House, review: A genuine if underfocused inquiry into the nature of love

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Impressed by his Flying Dutchman in Bayreuth, Kasper Holten invited the young German director Jan Philipp Gloger to Covent Garden and was surprised he chose Così fan tutte, the last of Mozart’s great collaborations with Da Ponte, his problematic tale of fiancé swapping in disguise. Is it worldly-wise social comedy or an altogether crueller assessment of human relations?

What Gloger serves up is a modern-dress Così for the social media generation, able to self-invent at will, under pressure to have it all. Focusing on the opera’s alternative title The School for Lovers, for Gloger the confusion that the four protagonists undergo as their affections shift and challenge their previous certainties about themselves constitutes a genuine inquiry into the nature of love.

This is achieved by Don Alfonso (Johannes Martin Kränzle) inviting them into a succession of alternative theatrical realities: a Brief Encounter train station for the pain of parting; a baroque theatre set for Dorabella’s capitulation (clear-voiced Angela Brower); a bar full of indistinguishable chancers. Much works brilliantly with great humour, but where reality can be changed with a gesture, the real sense of jeopardy that should be there when the male lovers ostensibly return in their real guises is lost, and the production loses focus.

Ensemble singing is strong; the standout is Daniel Behle’s gorgeous tenor as Ferrando. Above all, Semyon Bychkov’s impeccable balance and pacing in the pit allows it full space to blossom.

Performances on 22, 24, 29 September; 3, 7, 12, 14, 17, 19 October 2016. Box Office 020 7304 4000; www.roh.org.uk. This production will be streamed live from the Royal Opera House in cinemas on 17 October; visit www.roh.org.uk/cinema. Così fan tutte will also be broadcast live via BBC Radio 3 on Saturday 12 November 2016 at 6.30pm