Così fan tutte review: Women are on top in this broad, buffoonish comedy

Beethoven wasn’t alone in considering Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte as at best flippant, at worst depraved: in the 19th century, that was the majority view. Today we respond better to its blend of low comedy and emotional intrigue. Although some accuse the opera of demeaning women, the test of sexual fidelity at the plot’s heart leaves neither gender unscathed.

Oliver Platt’s production for Opera Holland Park treats the comedy as buffoonish and so misses the elegance of the satire. If Alyson Cummins’ designs solve some of the problems of the theatre’s wide but shallow stage, too much of the action is heavy-handed caricature, as if Mozart were composing for a Whitehall farce.

At least we get elegance in the music. Conductor Dane Lam keeps things moving without seeming to rush, and the wind players make the most of Holland Park’s semi-open air acoustic. As Mozart probably intended, the women come off best; the men are merely foppish or hard-bitten. Sarah Tynan brings energy, wit and style to the role of Despina, the worldly wise, been there, done that servant who tries to persuade her mistresses to live a little while their men are away.

Kitty Whately’s Dorabella’s responds with a volatile blend of flightiness and sincerity, but it is Eleanor Dennis who stands out. Fiordiligi can sometimes seem all glamorous surface with no emotional substance; Dennis catches the character’s self-dramatising histrionics, but her exquisite vocal shading also delivers real emotional depth.

Until June 22