What fun, what larks: musical quality & deft comic action in Opera Holland Park’s 1960s package deal holiday Cosi fan tutte

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte – Osian Wyn Bowen, Madeline Boreham, Paul Grant – Opera Holland Park (Photo: Craig Fuller)

Mozart: Cosi fan tutte: Madeline Boreham, Shakira Tsindos, Osian Wyn Bowen, Paul Grant, Elizabeth Karani, Paul Carey Jones, director: Cecilia Stinton, City of London Sinfonia, conductor: Charlotte Corderoy; Opera Holland Park
Reviewed 28 May 2026

Musical quality triumphs in Cecilia Stinton’s over-active Italian package holiday-themed production with a young cast led by conductor Charlotte Corderoy really showing their Mozartian chops

When Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte last appeared at Opera Holland Park (OHP) in 2018 [see my review] the young artists playing the lovers were Eleanor Dennis, Kitty Whately, Nick Pritchard and Nicholas Lester, all now well on their way to being distinguished names, and one wonders what a production featuring them would be like now. The sisters being somewhat more mature, perhaps having a holiday fling!

That 2018 production was also firmly and attractively set in the 18th century. For their new production at this year’s Opera Holland Park, director Cecilia Stinton [who directed Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor here last year, see my revew] and designer Neil Irish have decided to take the opera’s ideas of two women holidaying near Naples and give it a more modern gloss so that the sisters are on a distinctly more modern package deal holiday. 

We caught the opening night of the production (28 May 2026) when Charlotte Corderoy conducted the City of London Sinfonia with Madeline Boreham and Shakira Tsindos as Fiordiligi and Dorabella [the two were in the 2023 Young Artist performance of Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel, also conducted by Corderoy, see my review]. Ferrando was Osian Wyn Bowen and Guglielmo was Paul Grant [who sang Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in 2024, also directed by Stinton, see my review]. Elizabeth Karani was Despina and Paul Carey Jones was Don Alfonso, both OHP regulars.

During the overture we watched passengers arriving for holidays against a backdrop of a huge Naples travel poster. The mood was deliberately upbeat and at the end of the overture Fiordiligi and Dorabella were left, unmet, at the airport. The setup seemed to be that Ferrando and Guglielmo were American servicemen stationed in Naples, and both Don Alfonso and Despina worked in the hotel where the sisters were staying. Act One unfolded against a series of imaginative (and very funny) scenes as the sisters did the usual tourist activities. The men’s disguises were as ancient Romans and dressing up became a theme as, when the sisters finally took the plunge they dressed up too, as did Despina and Don Alfonso.

Throughout, Neil Irish’s designs made the most of very little, creating a series of imaginative and effective settings yet allowing scenes to flow. A single ticket booth did multiple duty – airport arrivals, hotel reception, ticket desk at Pompeii – thus ensuring we knew where we were! The introduction of quasi-erotic Roman frescoes during Act Two only ensured that the opera’s underlying theme was emphasised.

There are different ways of handling the problematic elements in Mozart and Da Ponte’s opera and most directors have take on what does and doesn’t work. By focusing on the holiday romance element, Stinton seemed to be saying that there were feelings here but keep them light. And by setting the piece in the 1950s/60s (costumes were somewhat varied) there was an element of historical perspective to the men’s attitudes. This seemed to be a holiday fling gone wrong and once real feelings came into play in Act Two the tone became less frenetic, and the ending was distinctly ambiguous. Not a solution to the opera’s perceived problem then, but certainly an interesting take.

The problem was that the action in Act One in particular was a little too riotous with continuous stage movement and comic business that threatened to pull focus from the soloists. It was funny, all the action deftly handled, and the audience clearly enjoyed it, but Mozart isn’t Rossini and for much of the first act the four young principals struggled to establish strong characters. Even Madeline Boreham’s superb account of ‘Come scoglio’  suffered from this over-egging. The drawback also was that when Mozart and Da Ponte did create deliberately over-active comic business at the end of Act One this hardly stood out. Another theme of the staging was disguise, not just everyone dressing up as Romans, but Elizabeth Karani’s Despina played multiple roles including as tour guide. Again rather blunting the effect of her dressing up as the doctor in Act One and the notary in Act Two. 

The opera does work as this sort of hyperactive comedy, Mozart’s music is great enough that it can take almost anything. But Stinton seemed to be saying that the best way to solve the opera’s problems was to skate over them and keep the audience distracted. Rarely, if ever, were the soloists alone on stage in Act One.

Once beyond the serenade in Act Two (which saw the chorus ‘serenading’ the lovers in an Ancient Roman themed restaurant) the action takes a darker turn and Stinton’s staging responded. In Act One, though she did use the full extent of the OHP stage, there seemed the intention of using main stage and fore stage for dramatic separation with the sisters often on the main stage. It was only in Act Two that the nitty-gritty of music action moved to the fore-stage, and we got to appreciate the way the singers were invested in the music. It helped that the hyperactive fun rather stopped and Stinton did not shy away from having her singers alone.

Musically, however, this was a very strong performance. From the crisp opening moments of the overture it was clear that Charlotte Corderoy was in charge and her take in the music had an engaging zip to it, mirroring the general youth of the cast. Yet there was never a sense of pushing or over-fast tempos and the pace flowed admirably and engaging. Continuo was provided by Stuart Wild at a piano, thank goodness; sometimes a little over-active but always dramatic and supportive.

Madeline Boreham is developing into a stylish Mozartist, her performance of consistently high technical quality allied to real poise. In Act Two, she made Fiordiligi’s emotional arc into something engaging and, once the production allowed, drew us into the character. Shakira Tsindos’s distinctly ‘up for it’ Dorabella was a real complement to Boreham. Tsindos’s performance was consistently engaging, and the two really created a fine dynamic as the sisters let themselves go. 

Whilst the performances by Osian Wyn Bowen and Paul Grant were musically distinguished, the production did rather less to distinguish the two characters. Were these two even in love, or was it all a bit of a game to them? When push came to shove later in Act Two, Grant’s admirably lyrical Guglielmo finally got his moment, whilst Wyn Bowen’s intriguingly nerdy Ferrando highlighted his characterful voice.

The engines of the performance were very much the characters of Despina and Don Alfonso. Both Elizabeth Karani and Paul Carey Jones are gifted comic performers and, more importantly, both had the knack of holding the stage no matter what else was going on. This could be distracting so that some of Don Alfonso’s by-plays rather drew the eye, but Karani’s feisty and admirably well sung Despina had no problems holding our attention in her Act One solo despite a chorus of scantily clad dancing men! Carey Jones, showing little sign of having been singing Wotan and Dutchman [including at OHP last year, see my review] proved to be a vivid Don Alfonso with great attention to text.

For me, it was the musical quality of the performance that held me. If you closed your eyes it was very good indeed. At the centre of this was Charlotte Corderoy and City of London Sinfonia, consistently engaging, interesting and stylish, yet this was Mozart with plenty of pep. The soloists followed Corderoy’s lead and there were plenty of moments where you felt that by laughing at the jokes the audience were perhaps missing something deeper. 

If critics will probably continue talking about OHP’s opening production of Puccini rarity La fanciulla del West [see my review], I would imagine that audiences will remember this production for its sheer fun. The production is in repertory until 13 June with the Young Artists Performance on 7 June.