Organization

Conductor

Kirill Karabits

Stage director

Martin Lloyd-Evans

Set designer

Dick Bird

Costume designer

Singer

Soprano

Samantha Clarke

Fiordiligi

Mezzo-soprano

Kitty Whately

Dorabella

Baritone

Nicholas Lester

Guglielmo

Tenor

Alessandro Fisher

Ferrando

Carolina Lippo

Despina

Bass

Christian Senn

Don Alfonso

Lighting designer

Johanna Town

Orchestra

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

The Grange Festival

Others

The Grange Festival Chorus

Italian

Così fan tutte

Northington-Alresford

United Kingdom

The Grange

Private

Public

English

Approved

There are two titles of Mozart’s great opera Così fan tutte: All women do this and The School for lovers. It was written and first performed a year after the French revolution. Does reason or emotion direct our actions? Should we feel guilty for the mistakes we mistake, especially in love? Two pairs of chivalrous, idealistic, naïve lovers play out these challenges directed by their controlling rational puppeteers, initiated by a wager made in a Neapolitan coffee house. This moral experiment enfolds over a day and a night, charged by coffee, chocolate (the favoured aphrodisiac of the day), wine, poison and much more. Men are naturally prone to infidelity: women too?

The full power and charm of this seminal opera was not fully appreciated until modern times. It is now core to every opera house’s programme. As the gentle sea-breeze of the Bay of Naples infuses Mozart’s seductive music, we can expect The Grange to be a perfect setting for this duel between the sexes, both uncomfortable in its historic assumptions and starkly revealing of contemporary trends. Be prepared for nervous glances from your partner seated next to you, as you are beguiled, disrupted and enchanted.

A starry international cast will be conducted by Kirill Karabits, Chief Conductor of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, our resident Grange orchestra. Their decade-long partnership and his global distinction promise an evening of formative quality.

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble