VIENNA

With the Vienna State Opera House still under renovation, the company offered a highly acclaimed Cosí Fan Tutte in the Theater an der Wien on October 30, in co-production with the Vienna Festival. Mauro Carosi evoked Naples with a backcloth and a front drop that offered two autumnal views of the bay. Between were four curved wall segments with revolving doors, set off by opulent furnishings. Odette Nicoletti's costumes and Kurt Schöny's lighting matched both the scenery and the varying moods. Roberto De Simone told the story without gimmicks but with such expressive miming and gesture that one caught many more points than usual.

The singers were fully integrated musically and dramatically. The virile Guglielmo of Boje Skovhus was outstanding. Vocally, Barbara Frittoli and Vessalina Kasarova as the sisters were competent rather than exciting. Frittoli's tone often thinned out, a fault shared by Michael Schade as Ferrando, but their phrasing and vocal acting more than compensated. Cecilia Bartoli offered an earthy, non-soubrettish Despina, with Alessandro Corbelli the driest, wittiest Alfonso in recent memory. Riccardo Muti is an unsmiling Mozartean with a tendency toward inflexibility, but by the end of the evening he had relaxed the latter, and Mozart's music did the smiling for him.

- CHRISTOPHER NORTON-WELSH