Cosi fan tutte

The great Jim Sharman (director of Hair, Rocky Horror, etc, etc) gives Mozart the rom-com treatment in this revival of his lively 2009 production for Opera Australia. With a sexist plot still serviceable for a Hollywood teen/date movie — two lads take a bet that their adoring girlfriends, two sisters, could never be seduced by another within the next 24 hours — this 1790 masterwork comes up fresh and confronting. The Italian title translates as Women Are Like That (i.e. unfaithful, untrustworthy) and a strong streak of misogyny runs through the evening.

But at least Mozart gives the sisters the best, most exhilarating solos to sing: Sharon Prero as the strikingly blonde Fiordiligi and Sian Pendry as the ditzier brunette Dorabella dominate the evening. Starting in bathing costumes and ending in crazily-wigged party gear, they try, for a little while at least, to resist the attentions of their swapped partners who come ‘disguised’ behind fake facial hair and tight leather trousers to seduce them.

This, of course, is impossible to believe but Sharman eases our acceptance by staging the whole opera as a pageant at the wedding of an unnamed high-class couple. The ‘let’s pretend’ action unfolds between a huge tiered cake and champagne glasses upstage and the bride and groom as silent observers downstage. What  will they take into their marriage? Women cannot ever be trusted? Live only for each moment? “Love if you have to, but do it for fun”?

The two blokes (Stephen Smith and Samuel Dundas) sing up a storm but are confusingly similar in appearance, either as themselves or in disguise. Richard Anderson brings a rich bass to the cynical Don Alfonso, prime mover of the plot. Lorina Gore as Despina the live-in maid — also a dab hand at unconvincing disguises — adds bravura sparkle and sex appeal.

Sharman works on a strange setting (by Ralph Myers) that looks like a collapsing corridor with leaning white-panelled walls and a ski-slope floor which a phalanx of wedding guests must navigate with as much speed and decorum as possible.

Sung in English, the cheeky, ultra-modern translation is a huge source of pleasure throughout. However one must search hard through the voluminous program to find the single mention of translator Jeremy Sams.

Frank Hatherley

Images (from top): Samual Dundas & Lorina Gore. Photographer: Branco Gaica