English National Opera: Così fan tutte at The Bridgewater Hall

English National Opera takes its first ever bow at The Bridgewater Hall with Così fan tutte – Mozart’s sparkling comedy, presented in two semi-staged concert performances.

At the centre of the opera are Ferrando and Guglielmo, two smugly loved-up soldiers whose confidence in love is tested by a wager proposed by their older, more cynical friend Don Alfonso. Convinced that fidelity is a comforting illusion – particularly where women are concerned – Alfonso persuades them to put their relationships to the test. In disguise, Ferrando and Guglielmo attempt to seduce each other’s fiancées, turning romance into a game of deception and temptation. What begins as a joke quickly gathers speed, fuelled by Don Alfonso constantly upping the ante, and Mozart’s uncanny instinct for emotional timing.

Directed by Ruth Knight, this semi-staged production places the action in Coney Island, 1950 – a pleasure-garden world of fairground spectacle, circus energy and romantic risk-taking. The setting mirrors the opera’s internal logic, where relationships behave like rides you climb onto willingly, surrendering control as momentum takes over. In concert-hall form at The Bridgewater Hall, the emphasis falls on pace, character and theatrical suggestion, allowing the music – and the rules of the game – to pull everything forward.

One of Mozart’s final operatic works, Così fan tutte is driven as much by its score as by its plot, with every flirtation and feint given precise musical shape. The opera glides from the blithe swirl of ensemble writing to moments of private conviction: Fiordiligi’s show-stopping ‘Come scoglio’, all steely resolve and spectacular vocal leaps, or Ferrando’s ‘Un’aura amorosa’, a moment of disarming lyricism that briefly makes the wager feel beside the point. In a semi-staged setting, those emotional shifts can register with real clarity – less about theatrics, more about voices, choices and the emotional undertow beneath the comedy.

At the centre of the mischief is Andrew Foster-Williams as Don Alfonso, the smooth-talking instigator who keeps the experiment in motion, with Ailish Tynan’s Despina drafted in as an accomplice and accelerant. The two couples are played by Lucy Crowe and Bethany Horak-Hallett as sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, alongside Joshua Blue and Darwin Prakash as Ferrando and Guglielmo – roles that demand vocal agility, sharp comic timing and emotional gear-changes as the game unfolds. Alexander Joel conducts the English National Opera Orchestra, bringing Mozart’s quicksilver shifts to life.

The English National Opera’s Bridgewater Hall performance marks more than a one-off visit. It forms part of ENO’s new partnership with Greater Manchester, as the company begins to establish a more regular presence across the city-region over the coming years. For Manchester audiences, Così fan tutte offers an early glimpse of that relationship taking shape – a signature Mozart comedy arriving as a taste of what’s to come.

A glittering comedy, a plot that keeps shifting underfoot, and Mozart making the whole thing sound irresistible. For ENO’s first Bridgewater Hall appearance, it’s a pretty perfect way to arrive.