Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte (Cosi Fan Tutte: 2009 Salzburg Festival) [2010] [Region Free]

None of the 5 reviews above relate to this recording. Those reviews (and I have no issue against any of these reviewers) wrongly relate to an entirely different recording - ie the excellent Glyndebourne Cosi fan Tutte. For some unknown reason Amazon has decided to import these reviews to this disc. I have twice pointed out this error to Amazon and they have twice promised to remove these reviews. However,the 'rogue' reviews remain. While the error is plain to see on a detailed examination, an unsuspecting customer could easily order the disc only to find that they get something quite different. This is a completely different production, with largely different artists, different conductors and different venues. This version is by Claus Guff who directed the Vienna Philharmonic Ochestra in last year's Salzberg Festival. This is likely to be a million miles away from the more traditional Glyndebourne production which was recorded in 2006.I personally like Claus Guff's work and have ordered this disc. However, this director is quite controversial and many people may prefer other, safer versions.I am compelled to give a rating in order to publish this warning. I think that it is fairer to give it the 5 stars that I hope is deserved - after all, I have ordered the disc blind! With luck Amazon will delete the lot and then there will be no losers!Edited 14 Nov 2010. Having now watched this disc I feel that I ought to pass comment on the performance. There is much to enjoy with this version and I was much less irritated with Bo Skovhus's role as Don Alphonso as one reviewer has commented upon. This interpretation places his position more as the 'master of ceremonies' than as a philosopher. I very much enjoyed the singing of both Miah Perrson and Isabel Leonard. I thought they were on top form. Patricia Petitbon's lively interpretation of Despina was also an excellent performance. However, on balance I think that I will be returning more frequently to the Glyndebourne production as the definitive Cosi.

I love Cosi and this version is the eighth one. It is also the best one that I have ever heard and seen. The sisters sing in such a wonderful way and act beautifully as well. The two lovers are very fantastic singers and actors too. Topi Lehtipuu is the best Mozart tenor I have heard since Anton Dermota (DECCA, Böhm,1955).He has a very poetic tone and a wonderful lightness in his voice.Patricia Petibon is a very good Despina and she has a lovely comic talent.VPO is of their usual extreme standard and Adam Fischer is a very special Mozart conductor. And most of all: No silly french horns without valves and bassoons sound like bassoons should sound. Don't tell me that mr. Mozart would not have loved modern horns and bassoons!The surroundings and the costumes are very modern, but not disturbing.I love it very much

Not only the best "Cosi Fan Tutte" I ever saw, it is the best opera performance, giving this Mozart's piece full meaning. Usually commented as a cute Mozart's music on a trivial libreto, in Salzburg 2009 production we got a theatre masterpiece, great, always actual comedy/psychological drama, supriorely directed, perfect coreography and scenography, superb acting of all actors/singers accompanied with excellent music by Mozart! Opera for all times! Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte (Cosi Fan Tutte: 2009 Salzberg Festival) [DVD] [2010] [NTSC ]

I too was tempted to watch this opera production after some of the rave reviews. What a disappointment. This is a shambolic and somewhat smutty version of a classic Mozart opera that just drags on and on and on.There is no comparison between this over the top modernist opera and the classic recording from the Glyndebourne Opera which features two of the stars of this production in Topi Lehtipuu and Miah Persson. Don't waste your money on this one.

With the most attractive and well sung and acted pair of sisters I have personally ever seen, especially the young mezzo Isabel Leonard singing Dorabella, plus very strong support from their lovers, a very good Despina, what could go wrong?Don Alfonso (Bo Skovhus) the portraysal is completely baffling, the only guide in the booklet is "ringmaster" and "cynical friend": how this translates into strange jerky movements, acting that at times appears to border on the camp, raising the question is this man meant to be a misogynist, gay, or simply weird, whatever is intended it is certainly not comic and only detracts from the drama.On a second viewing I was able to overlook Alfonso and concentrate on the excellent performances from everyone else, fine singing all round set in a good two storey apartment staging.This could so easily have been my all time favourite Cosi, but totally frustrated I must downgrade it to 4 stars, and this is only applicable if like me you can ignore the antics of the Alfonso.

I was encouraged to purchase this by the glowing reviews here that have now been removed as, it seems, they referred to the Glyndebourne production, which I already have and which is superb. I have only watched the first act of Claus Guth's attempt and not sure if I can bear to watch the rest. The set is very modern on two levels with a white open staircase and lots of glass which might account for the rather harsh sound. The main protagonists are young and glamorous with good voices but they are hampered by incongruous, stylised and sometimes synchronised movements, or stage directions, which are almost parody. I am not against modern productions as such but this one is not to my taste and I cannot recommend it. Miah Persson and Topi Lehtipu are also in the Glyndebourne production and give a much more natural and engaging performance under Nicholas Hytner's direction. Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte [Blu-ray] [2009] [2006] [NTSC ]

Brilliant. Do not think. Just buy it.

One is already spoilt by many, many great versions of Cosi but rarely in this glorious High Definition Blu Ray quality! No one will be disappointed in this Salzburg version - but make sure it is the Blu Ray you order!

Una verdadera joya. Es la segunda versión que más me ha gustado de Cosí fan tutte. Patricia Petibon está impecable.

Il punto di forza di questa edizione? Le scene, ambientate in uno di quegli appartamenti newyorkesi super tecnologici. I luoghi dei vincenti, di chi è “arrivato”. Le ragazze tutte super belle, super affascinanti, super pettinate, super in carriera, i ragazzi tutti super palestrati e con lo sguardo ombroso d’ordinanza. Ma a un certo punto impattano contro il problema cruciale della vita: l’amore. E che succede? E’ tutto un mistero, e non basta un master alla Massachusets University per far quadrare tutto…. E allora via con l’ipod, l’ipad, l’iphone, e l’alcol che scorre a fiumi.A un certo punto in scena incombe un bosco. E le modelle in toilette di Dior si ritrovano a camminare su sentieri sterrati. Un luogo dove provare un sentimento sconosciuto, come lo smarrimento, è normale.Due le chiavi di lettura: quella comica, che esprime il gioco, e la voglia di vivere che lo alimenta, oppure quella della malinconia, per quello che – ben presto – tutti si rendono conto essere nella migliore delle ipotesi irrealizzabile. Ma anche la malinconia che viene dalla presa consapevolezza della caducità delle cose, o dall’accorgersi che quel che si prende non è meglio di quel che si lascia. Alla fine le coppie di amanti non sanno più nemmeno come ricomporsi. E Don Alfonso lì a ghignare per essere riuscito – lui filosofo – a spazzare via ogni barlume di punto fermo. Un allestimento davvero interessante, dove si riflette sul rapporto tra illusioni e realtà, tra sogni e ciò che davvero si riesce s fare, tra ragione e sentimento. Soprattutto, si mette il naso dentro l'abisso che c'è dentro di noi.Musicalmente la produzione è di altissimo livello almeno quanto la regia: la direzione di Adam Fischer è assecondata fin nei minimi dettagli dai Wiener in stato di grazia. Cantanti di notevole livello, su tutti Patricia Petibon. Nota di demerito: la dizione di Bo Skovhus, davvero pessima

a simply brilliant present day blowing away the cobwebs yet maintaining the full integrity of the text performance from start to finish - for apart from magnificent singing and superb orchestral playing the acting and characterisation throughout are so carefully delineated that the whole becomes a superlative psychological exploration which allows the foibles and foolishness of the characters to be seen at full value without our losing sympathy for the dilemma in which they find themselves:the six principals are everything one could hope for, the stunning puppet-master Don Alfonso presented by Bo Skovhus is the performance I've been waiting for for more than 40 years; Patricia Petibon's Despina is very much working class with every on-stage reason to be contemptuous of her foolish employers, taking every opportunity to manipulate them into the inevitable love-games, and again hers is a performance which will stand the test of time for ages to come: the two sisters, the magnificent Miah Persson at her exquisite best as the would-be-hold-out tormented Fiordiligi and the relative newcomer Isabel Leonard as the more susceptible Dorabella are ravishing, musically and physically, and work wonderfully well with/off each other; the deflated braggadocio of the lovers is superbly handled, the supposedly-triumphant swaggering male assumptions at its foolish comedic best rapidly turns into genuine pain and bewilderment thanks to the wonderful interplay between Florian Boesch's Gugliemo and Topi Lehtpuu's Ferrando, again a pairing that could hardly be betteredat the heart of this triumph lies the subtle direction of Claus Guth (yes, subtle, despite the occasional video lapses, one shockingly apt over the top moment for Despina perfectly understandable given the situation and character, and lack of disguises Mozart calls for) with exquisite tiny silent moments of interplay between all the characters, supported by the loving video direction of a Brian Large at his very bestthis a lovely complement and (raunchier) contrast to the 1988 romantic comedy of manners version from Ponnelle/Harnoncourt and the interesting Sellars diner presentation of 1990 but outshines them both (and puts the very poorly staged and amateur filming of the 2007 Glyndebourne/Hytner production which undermined the fine work of the four lovers into the shade where it so firmly belongs)to conclude, if I were allowed just one operatic dvd in my collection this would be it by a glorious golden mile

Ce dernier opéra de la trilogie de da Ponte est une oeuvre tout à fait dans l'esprit du dix-huitième siècle: à la fois drôle, si l'on s'arrête à l'anecdote, et à la fois cruelle si on approfondit le message d'une oeuvre très désenchantée sur la relation entre les hommes et les femmes, et sur l'amour.Mise en scène dans un cadre actuel, l'oeuvre nous paraît soudain d'autant plus proche que les chanteurs, jeunes, beaux, d'un naturel parfait,semblent tout droit sortis de notre univers contemporain, ce qui éclaire mieux encore le message de cette oeuvre ambivalente, qui n'a pas pris une ride.Orchestre, chanteurs, choeurs sont excellents, et font de cette interprétation un petit joyau.

昔々のトレンディドラマ（死語?）見てるような。音楽が違和感なく思えるのはモーツァルトの普遍性故だろうな。美男美女が美声まで加えて繰り広げる馬鹿話の楽しいこと。目も耳も至福の時を過ごさせていただきました。