London Coliseum (studio)
06 February 2026 (released)
8 h
This is a dazzling production of Mozart’s story of Love and Deception. It opens like a pantomime with fire-eaters, acrobats, dwarfs and giants, against a fairground background. This is Coney Island, New York, in the 1950s. There are not many operas first seen in 1790 that could survive this sort of treatment, but such is the dynamism of Mozart’s music combined with Da Ponte’s satiric, comedic story that, however many tunnels of love we see, they remain accompaniment to the characters playing out their own versions of love.
Two couples interweave, change their alliances, change their appearances, change the direction of their love. Of the two women, Fiordiligi is played by the acclaimed Lucy Crowe who enters the part of a woman swayed by her heart – or is it merely a game? – with total conviction and a soaring soprano. The second, Dorabella, played by Taylor Raven, full mezzo-soprano, appears to be a steadier character, but falls even more thoroughly and quickly for her deceptive seducer.
Of the two deceiving men, Joshua Blue as Ferrando has the most commanding presence, with a beautiful tenor voice and a good sense of comedy. Darwin Prakesh, tenor, is less confident on stage, but it give his portrayal of a man deceiving in order not to be deceived, a greater depth. For these two men, on a holiday at Coney Island, are led into a trap and persuaded to test the loyalty of their beloveds. Even betting money on their everlasting faithfulness.
The trap is set up by Don Alfonso, sung by Andrew Foster-Williams, Bass-baritone, who is thoroughly competent without managing to feel quite as wily and manipulative as he should. This role is taken by Despina, his accomplice, sung by Irish-born Ailish Tynan, soprano, whose accent adds to her obvious delight in causing so much drama. For me, hers, just ahead of Lucy Crowed and Joshua Blue, is the stand-out performance as she changes roles as varied as chamber-maid, doctor and lawyer. So the two men, considering themselves central to the story, change into swaggering visitors to the playground, out for seduction.
It seems odd as Fiordiligi and Dorabella, after limited prevarication, transfer their love from one man to the other, disguised of course, that all this romping was written and conceived by a man who began life as a priest. However Da Ponte’s hold on most attitudes considered priestly, rapidly diminished to the extent that he ran a brothel at one point, and biographers cannot keep tally on the amount of his women and children, even if he ended up as an academic in America. Nevertheless, this is both a jolly outing to the Pleasure Garden and a morality tale: women are no more to be trusted than men. Not perhaps the most elevated of messages, but, arguably, in line with the womens’ equal rights movement. Women, in fact, are central to the opera, even if marvellous Mozart arias are fairly evenly dispensed to both sexes.
This ENO production was first seen in 2016 and, as a Metropolitan Opera co-production, it has also been produced in New York. Happily, it shows no sign of ageing and filled the Colisseum’s over two thousand seats with an enthusiastic crowd, age range from ninety to nine. Like a pantomime, people come out more cheerful than they went in. For this conductor Dinis Sousa, director Phelim McDermot and, of course, designer, Tom Pye deserve gariteful thanks. At a time when even the grandest opera productions often rely on the minimum of sets, it is exciting to be thrown into the middle of a vivid, whirling world – plus Mozart’s music.
