The Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy is among this year’s features at the Salzburg Festival. All three titles have been shown in recent years and none was announced as a new production. However, Così fan tutte, which has been moved from the Haus für Mozart, where it had been staged in 2013, to the Felsenreitschule, turned out to have undergone so many changes that one can consider it a new production.

Stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf, in the last year of his tenure as head of drama at the Salzburg Festival, also took care of the sets. Some chairs and a sofa were placed in the center of the stage, while a number of tables in the background with various items on their top served some unknown purpose, but the natural setting of the Felsenreitschule simplifies the set designer’s task, and the overall effect was pleasant. Painted backdrops featuring the gulf of Naples or a moon-lit garden were unfolded on the background at appropriate moments. At the beginning and the end a number of gloomy figures dressed as Medieval doctors or perhaps alchemists silently surrounded the center of the stage.

The two sisters were German soprano Julia Kleiter as Fiordiligi and American mezzo Angela Brower as Dorabella (not perfectly at ease with the Italian diction). They sang their parts appropriately, without leaving any memorable impression. More interesting were Swiss tenor Mauro Peter as Ferrando, who sang as passionately as the production allowed him to, and Italian bass-baritone Alessio Arduini (who is also appearing as Masetto in Don Giovanni this year) as Guglielmo. Martina Janková, the only cast member who also appeared in the original 2013 production, was a cunning Despina. German bass-baritone Michael Volle, a house favorite, enjoyed much success, but I personally did not like his interpretation of Don Alfonso, and found the angered, rather than more appropriately ironic, way in which he uttered his conclusive remark “Ripetete con me: così fan tutte!” quite disturbing. 

Maestro Ottavio Dantone, who conducted the Orchestra of the Mozarteum, gave a very analytic reading of the score. His tempi were mostly slow, with pauses especially in the second act, and contributed to the uncheerful atmosphere which turned out to be the keynote of the performance.