A blow for fidelity

Così fan tutte
In rep until 17 July

Billy Budd
In rep until 27 June
Glyndebourne

Glyndebourne has opened this year with two troubling operas, but ones which disturb in quite different ways. Così fan tutte is described by Max Loppert, in an excellent essay in the programme, as ‘the cruellest and most disturbing opera ever written’, and, though I can think of a couple of others that might equally lay claim to that title, there is no doubt that Così is a harrowing work, ever more so the more one knows it: which is not at all to deny that it is a comedy — that is what makes it so terrible. 

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This revival of Nicholas Hytner’s 2006 production is superb, if not in every respect quite as fine as the first time round. Its distinctive feature, perhaps, is that it is very much on the girls’ side, making their suitors seem almost as detestable as their (the suitors’) mentor Don Alfonso.