29 May 2005

Mozart and Gluck in London

Did Mozart really think Cosi Fan Tutte was a comedy? Matthew Warchus didn’t seem sure when he created his ENO staging three years ago; but, even if Steven Stead’s revival doesn’t milk every gag in Jeremy Sams’ wonderfully witty translation of Da Ponte’s libretto, there are enough laughs to make you think he might have done.


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Cosi Fan Tutte

Erica Jeal [The Guardian, 28 May 05]

Did Mozart really think Cosi Fan Tutte was a comedy? Matthew Warchus didn't seem sure when he created his ENO staging three years ago; but, even if Steven Stead's revival doesn't milk every gag in Jeremy Sams' wonderfully witty translation of Da Ponte's libretto, there are enough laughs to make you think he might have done.

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La Clemenza di Tito

Andrew Clements [The Guardian, 28 May 05]

La Clemenza di Tito seems to be everywhere this year, but this concert performance, given by the Classical Opera Company as part of the Lufthansa Baroque Festival, was distinctly different. For this was not the opera seria composed by Mozart in the last few months of his life, but Gluck's work on the same subject, first performed in Naples in 1752 and never heard in Britain until now.

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