Cosi Fan Tutte premiered a year before Mozart’s death in 1791. It’s probably one of our most popular operas today, largely due, but not exclusively, to its exquisitely crafted arias, which Mozart produces one after another for his female singers.

I attended opening night of Cosi at English National Opera with mixed feelings however. I had seen the same production in 2022. The ‘love story’ then, as now, had been transposed to a Coney Island amusement park of the 1950s. While I  had greatly admired Tom Pye’s gaudy but magical, set design in ’22, and Director, Phelim McDermott’s Improbable ensemble, made up of circus performers, I had found the staging a tad distracting. It threatened to kidnap Mozart’s masterpiece.

Scroll up to opening night of Cosi at ENO 2026 – my misgivings evaporated as I saw, this time, how well the same staging enhanced Mozart’s, and his librettist, Lorenzzo da Ponte’s, story. It’s not much of a story, merely a tale of two sisters who are tricked into infidelity. Unbeknownst to them, they end up stealing each other’s beau, who are each in disguise!

The young lovers end up in the Pleasure Gardens of Coney Island where all is about unfettered freedom, transgression, the sisters and their beaus in disguise, undergo an emotional journey of pain, fuelled by temptation, lust and shame (for the women), anger for the men – then acceptance. The fairground rides were manned by the Coney Island side-show entertainers, who looked on, amused and bemused at the young lovers who have created romantic chaos.

As is always with Mozart, the dark theme of betrayal, treachery, is softened with comedy, and there is true comedy here in the libretto – but the tragedy, shame the young sisters feel, is unsettling, and thankfully leads to the most exquisite arias.

Lucy Crowe OBE as sister Fiordiligi was magnificent, her soprano, fresh as a mountain stream, seemed to be the linchpin of the score and the cast. As Crowe rose into the air on stage in a hot air ballon, the sky filled with winking stars. I heard members of the audience gasp around me. It was a rare moment of unadulterated joy at the opera house, for Fiordiigi also a moment of deep sadness.

Tayor Raven playing Dorabella was making her debut at ENO. As the opera progressed, so did her warm mezzo. Her duets with Crowe were melded beautifully.

Ails Tynan, as Despina, the cheeky maid, kept us laughing and Andrew Foster-Williams as ‘controller’ of the piece – was perfectly commanding in his bass-baritone.

Yet another slick ENO production with good casting and where staging and direction was of the highest order. 

KH

Cosi fan Tutte has four performances left at English National Opera – 17 and 19 February at 19.00 pm, 14 February at 15.00pm  and 21^st February at 13.00pm