Outrageous Brilliance Meets Mozart at the English National Opera | Theatre | Entertainment

Getting the audience in the right mood is vital in such a production and McDermott accomplishes this right at the start by bringing the circus troupe onto the stage during the overture. Even more than the visual surprise of seeing such performers in an opera house, they are holding cards that tell us, in various permutations, what lies in store.

The plot centres on the relationships between two men, Guglielmo and Ferrando, and their fiancees, Fiordiligi and Dorabella. The men express total faith in the women’s trustworthiness and fidelity to their suave, older friend Don Alfonso, who strongly disagrees and proposes a bet that he can prove their unreliability within 24 hours if the men do exactly as he tells them. « Cosi fan tutte, » Alfonso tells them – all women are the same.

The dubious misogyny of the plot led to this opera scarcely being seen in the UK during the 19th century but productions such as this demonstrate that the immorality of the plot makes it a glorious rom-com. The Amusement Park setting of Coney Island, New York, around 1950, enhances that modernisation and any lingering moral indignation is firmly extinguished when we see the title « Cosi fan tutte » amended to « Cosi fan tutti » – all of us are the same, not just women. Perhaps that was the inspiration that led to a circus troupe being brought in: all people have something in common, even the dwarfs, fire-eaters and knife swallowers

However, the sheer incongruity of it all is not the only feature that makes this production so impressive: the cast combine comedy with great singing that displays the full glory of Mozart’s music; the orchestra, under Portuguese conductor Dinis Sousa, keep things moving at an appropriately hectic pace, partly thanks to very clever design by Tom Pye that allows the circus people to make swift set changes; and the translation by Jeremy Sams from the original Italian is superb.

Soprano Lucy Crowe and mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven are delightful as Fiordiligi and Dorabella, shifting gear effortlessly between comedy and the demands of Mozart’s music, while the same can be said of British-American tenor Joshua Blue and Indian baritone Darwin Prakash as Ferrando and Guglielmo. They were perhaps a little slower than the women in adjusting to the comedy, but the obvious enjoyment of the audience quickly raised their performances.

Bass-baritone Andrew Foster-Williams portrayed the part of Don Alfonso in a less suave and sophisticated way than usual, but the more dodgy edge he gave to the role was well suited to the fairground-circus surroundings. Perhaps the most convincing of all the cast, however, was the Irish soprano Ailish Tynan as Despina, the maid, who willingly joins in Don Alfonso’s scheming. Whether disguised as a doctor or a notary or dancing with a pair of dwarfs while singing a Mozart aria, she showed excellent comic timing as well as a fine voice throughout.

Translating operas into English, as the ENO insists on doing, is a perilous procedure and often produces unsatisfactory results. Different languages have different rhythms and while the original libretto was written to match the music, translations often sound clunky. Jeremy Sams avoids this trap, somehow managing to produce a libretto that sounds perfectly natural in English while also staying loyal to the meaning of the original. His version of Cosi fan tutte is one of his best, packed with ingenious rhymes and appropriate humour, making it a joy to listen to.

Turning an 18th century opera into a 21st century musical comedy is fraught with danger, but Phelim McDermott has succeeded in doing it with total respect for the original. Mozart would have loved it.

• Cosi Fan Tutte will be performed at the London Coliseum on various dates until February 21. For Box Office, visit eno.org or 020 7845 9300