Hexagonal

OPERA JOHN HIGGINS

The Bay of Naples is much in the fashion this summer. Vlado Habunek produces Cosi fan awe for the Holland Festival later this month. At the beginning of July Franco Enriquez stages it for Munich's Cuvillies- theater. And Cosi turns up yet again at Salzburg on July 28 in a new production by Jean Pierre Ponnelle, whose // barbiere di Siviglia was the success of last year's Festival and a masterly piece of comic direction.

But Glyncfebourne have scooped the Neapolitan pool with the first of the sea- son's Cmis they will be taking it to Ghent in the early autumn so that yet another Festival has a sight of the Alfonso crossed lovers. This Sussex staging (Franco Enriquez again) is a good deal more artful than one or two of my colleagues have given it credit for. Those looking for a sighing comedy of matuRrs heavy with Mediter- ranean heat will be disappointed; SO— delight of delights will those looking for a Cimarosa touch of comic notaries and desperately unfunny disguises. Franco Enriquez instead gives us a lesson in sexual geometry, why it works and how it moves.

The prime movers in Mozart's hexagon are Don Alfonso and Despina. Eerrando and Ciuglielmo may claim to the contrary, but their lives for twenty four hours and. who knov,s. perhaps a little longer--are in the hands of an elderly philosopher and a serving maid. The moral of the piece lies not only in the title: it is also that wit and resource are more powerful forces than mere professions of love.

Franco Enriquez has cast both Alfonso and Despina from strength. The perform- ance is regularly dominated by Jane Berbie's maid. Or is maid the right descrip- lion? There is no doubt who is running the household of the Ferraresi from the moment Despina arrives and sips the morn- ng chocolate. Luzzati carefully puts her in a lime and white costume which in Act 1 is insolently close to the shades worn by Dorabella: in this establishment the social distinctions between servant and mistress are becoming uncomfortably blurred. Within a year or two Despina, one of life's natural controllers, is going to be directing something quite different, an eighteenth century boutique perhaps or one of Naple's better bordellos.

In the meantime she is setting aside the cash. Enter Don Alfonso, who after all is on to a thousand zecchini if he wins his wager:

DON A Ti vo fare del ben.

DES A una fanciulla un vecchio come lei non pub far nu/la.

But he can, in cash terms if in no other way. The purse strings are opened; Despina is engaged; and the hexagon begins to revolve. (Money has sometimes been an underrated force in Cosi.)

Jane Berbie may present a plump little baggage on the exterior, but underneath she suggests all the resources of Despina.

The contempt shown for the propertied classes has a gallic flavour—the wrinkling nose and dismissive hand are quite close to

the gestures Francoise Rosay used to pro- duce when she was doing her servant bit—

but it still manages to be very much in Despina's character. The performance is a adroit musically as it is dramatically. Each

aria is shaped to produce maximum effect, and when at the end of 'Una donna a quindici anni' Fiordiligi can only remark 'Sore'la, coca dici?' one feels like leaping up and shouting, 'superb. never better'.

Don Alfonso is put slightly in the shade by all this, though the fault is hardly Paolo Montarsolo's. It is a performance ripe almost to the point of seediness, suggesting that maturity is really acquired over a jar

at the local. Alfonso has little chance for

personal display—the arias go elsewhere— but he is there in most of the ensembles and much of the strength of this interpreta- tion comes from the way in which the voice blends perfectly with the others on stage.

Maturity is not the strongpoint of the lovers. As Fiordiligi and Dorabella discuss the attractions of their officers in the ter- race scene they are almost lost in self adora- tion. Even Ferrando and Guglielmo suggest in Act 1 that the bonds of regimental camaraderie are the strongest ties they know. It is only in the second act, as the score deepens and intensifies, that the men turn really seriously to the women and vice versa. This Don Alfonso was clearly on a winner before the runners were even in the starting stalls.

Three of the four lovers are excellently cast. Ryland Davies has the ardour and fullness of tone foF. Ferrando; he has the

phrasing too. 'Utz_ aura amoroste was exquisitely sung—indeed, one of Franco

Enriquez's few errors was to allow Gugli- elmo expressions of boredom during this aria. Knut Skram. a Norwegian baritone making his debut in this country, is a most engaging Guglielmo. is jaunty, dapper appearance contrasts, as the libretto demands, with Ferrando's romantic man- ners; firm and easy voice, excellent delivery; may he come back soon.

Anne Howells' Dorabella is a lady of elegance and taste—or at least on the way to being so. It is as natural that she should choose Guglielmo for a flirtation ('Prendere quel brunettino) as that she should return to Ferrando at the end. Hanneke van Bork's Fiordiligi is the weak link at the moment; the dash of the other three lovers is missing here and so is the weight for 'Per pieta'.

Emmanuele Luzzati's sets have the Casa Pupo touch right down to the china lemons on carefully clipped, hip-height trees. The well-ordered brightness extends to John Pritchard's excellent account of the score and he must take credit too for beautifully balanced ensemble throughout the opera. This may not be the profoundest Con i ever, but as a summer song assembled with style and unity it will do very well indeed.