Approximate runtime: 3h 30min / 210min, One Interval
Sung in Italian with English subtitles.
Spurred
on by a bet, two young men hatch a plan to test the fidelity of their
girlfriends. What follows is a slippery game of seduction and power, the
four lovers plunging into a dizzying world of shifting reality, where
truth becomes increasingly unstable.
Così fan tutte
has lost none of its sting since it first scandalised audiences in
1790. In her Main Stage debut, Netia Jones, Associate Director of The
Royal Opera, reimagines Mozart’s comedy of manners through a sharp
contemporary lens, where 18th-century romantic trickery meets deeply
satirical high-tech deceit. Taking on the roles of the lovers is an
exciting young cast led by Louise Alder, Simone McIntosh, Mingjie Lei
and Huw Montague Rendall, with Gerald Finley as their manipulative
game-master Don Alfonso and Emily Pogorelc as Despina. Thomas
Hengelbrock conducts, bringing out the exquisite melodies that underpin
the provocative, and resolutely modern, themes at the heart of the
opera.