When you see two of the undisputed masterpieces of the repertoire in one week in one of the world’s leading opera houses, competently performed, and remain largely unmoved, you’re bound to ask yourself the question: have I been to these things, and heard them on record, too many times? It is, after all, possible to get tired even of the greatest works if you have experienced them regularly in the same productions, and without any special ‘magic’ ingredients, such as can bring back to life, or sustain, a standard work.
It was a question I found myself asking with special poignancy this week, after seeing two of Mozart’s greatest works in the space of four days at the Royal Opera House: Don Giovanni on Tuesday and Così fan tutte on Friday. Forty or so years ago Don Giovanni was taken by many leading commentators to be the greatest Mozart opera, or the greatest opera tout court, and Così was still a rather controversial piece, quite a few people feeling that the music was too good for the text.
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