In 1970s Cambridge, a bunch of buttoned up students are about to get a tutorial in fidelity in Wild Arts's fast-paced and nimble production of Mozart's Così fan tutte.
Expect operatic rock stars, flowery shirts, and serious flares...
"A fine young cast excel, with engaging energy and superb singing."
★★★★ The Guardian
"Forget Glyndbourne, give Garsington the brush off, high summer in the world of opera has to be Childerley Hall... [the show was] inspirational."
"Full credit to Orlando Jopling, a monumental task brought off with that essence of good opera – style." The Cambridge Critique
Ella Taylor, Martha Jones, and Joanna Songi (photo by Lucy J Toms)
At Cambridge University in 1972, Professor of Philosophy Don Alfonso is schooling bookish undergrads Ferrando and Guglielmo in the art of love. He bets them that their sweethearts can be tricked into betraying the young students. Meanwhile the sweethearts in question, sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, are in their dorm rooms, swooning with love and planning some mischief.
Don Alfonso feigns a secret spy mission that calls the boys abroad, and the sisters are left alone and bereft, while their fellow student Despina, who moonlights as a chambermaid for the extra cash, attempts to educate them in the infidelity of students and a healthy modern attitude to sex and relationships.
Don Alfonso enlists a skint Despina to help his 'friends', two extravagantly dressed rock stars (really Ferrando and Guglielmo in disguise) to woo the lovelorn sisters, who resist firmly. But once the rock stars return, having pretended to swallow poison out of love for the sisters, their icy exteriors begin to thaw, with a little help from a spiritualist crystal healer (Despina in disguise) who resurrects the poisoned lovers with some good vibrations. But they are still wildly too forward, far more forward than their nerdy sweethearts had ever dared to be, and the sisters shoo them away with student protest placards.
Despina continues her sexual education of the sisters, imploring them to loosen up, have a little fun while their boyfriends are abroad. They relent and decide to dally with the rock stars.
Walking the leafy arbours of Cambridge Botanical gardens Dorabella succumbs to Guglielmo's considerable charm, accepting the offer of a heart pendant and replacing her locket of Ferrando before following her new beau into the bushes. Meanwhile steadfast Fiordiligi continues to spurn Ferrando's advances although he and she are quickly falling for each other in a profound way which surprises both of them. Ferrando makes one final heartfelt attempt to woo the pious Fiordiligi who finally relents.
Guglielmo is raging, Don Alfonso is delighted (having won his bet and proved his point), and Ferrando is wildly confused – torn between his burgeoning love for Fiordiligi and his hurt pride at Dorabella's betrayal.
Don Alfonso resolves that they must marry their original sweethearts but not before one last trick to expose the sisters' betrayal. Mid wedding to the rock stars – with a trainee barrister (law student Despina in yet another disguise) presiding over the events – Don Alfonso declares the return of the undergrads. The sisters are distraught but all is revealed, all is forgiven and the lovers are reunited – following through with their wedding vows and making up. Peace and love win the day once more.
"The whole event was a pure joy. It was a privilege to have been there. We travelled home on a cloud."
"Fast, funny and brilliant, with every word clear as a bell."
"It was all done with a knowing, cheeky sense of humour, while never detracting from Mozart’s delectable score." The Guardian
"An absolute delight from beginning to end... As for the music — we left feeling utterly elated. What a joy to be listening to marvellous singing in such an atmosphere."
Orlando Jopling (he/him) is a conductor and cellist, and the Founder and Artistic Director of Wild Arts. He has conducted and worked as music staff for the Royal Opera House, Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Garsington Opera, the English Chamber Orchestra, and many others. He co-founded the contemporary opera company Tête à Tête an
Orlando Jopling (he/him) is a conductor and cellist, and the Founder and Artistic Director of Wild Arts. He has conducted and worked as music staff for the Royal Opera House, Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Garsington Opera, the English Chamber Orchestra, and many others. He co-founded the contemporary opera company Tête à Tête and summer opera festival Stanley Hall Opera, and is the Artistic Director of Essex’s Roman River Festival.
P Burton-Morgan (they/them) is an award-winning director, writer and librettist. Artistic Director of touring company Metta Theatre, for which they won the 2020 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain award for musical theatre book-writing for In The Willows, their opera credits include Madam Butterfly for the Olivier award- winning OperaUpClose,
P Burton-Morgan (they/them) is an award-winning director, writer and librettist. Artistic Director of touring company Metta Theatre, for which they won the 2020 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain award for musical theatre book-writing for In The Willows, their opera credits include Madam Butterfly for the Olivier award- winning OperaUpClose, Roles (V&A, where they were opera artist-in-residence in 2018) and Così fan tutte for Oxford Philharmonic (New Theatre).
Chantal Short (she/her) is a costume designer from Vancouver, Canada. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Performance Costume Design from the Edinburgh College of Art.
Recent work includes costumes for the Slamming Door Collective, Theatre Northwest, and Chemainus Theatre Festival. Chantal's creative interests include 20th century fashion
Chantal Short (she/her) is a costume designer from Vancouver, Canada. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Performance Costume Design from the Edinburgh College of Art.
Recent work includes costumes for the Slamming Door Collective, Theatre Northwest, and Chemainus Theatre Festival. Chantal's creative interests include 20th century fashion (especially the 1920s, 30s, and 70s), playing with gender, provocative subcultures, and the intersection of fashion and music. She enjoys work that is contemporary and challenging.
Friday 10 June 2022
Saturday 11 June 2022
Saturday 18 June 2022
Sunday 3 July 2022
7 | 9 | 10 July 2022
Friday 15 July 2022
Ella Taylor (they/them) is a keen collaborator and recitalist, working especially with people underrepresented in classical music, as well as working with composers and librettists in the creation of new, LGBT+ focused work.
Past roles have included Sparrow (Rylan Gleave’s Powder Down) for Shadwell Opera, Paris (Paride ed Elena) for Bampton Classical Opera, The Cock (The Cunning Little Vixen) with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gerda (Errollyn Wallen’s The Paradis Files) for Graeae.
They gave a talk for the Royal Opera House’s Engender 2021 Festival about navigating a career as a trans opera singer, and how companies can be the most effective allies they can be.
Martha Jones (she/her) studied at the Royal College of Music International Opera School and was awarded the Susan Chilcott Scholarship by the Royal Philharmonic Society during her time there. She has participated in Young Artist programs for the Ravinia Festival, Carnegie Hall, Britten Pears, and Samling.
As well as singing Dorabella for Wild Arts’s Così Fan Tutte last summer, she has performed the same role for English Touring Opera and Classical Opera /The Mozartists, and has sung with English National Opera, the Grange Festival, Scottish Opera, Opera de Limoges, Opera Vlaanderen, Glyndebourne, and the LPO. Her recordings include The Call with Malcolm Martineau.
Gareth Brynmor John (he/him) studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music, and the National Opera Studio where he was supported by the Royal Opera House. As well as performances with Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Royal Academy Opera, and Shadwell Opera, he sang Guglielmo for Wild Arts’s Così fan tutte in 2022, and has performed extensively in concert (at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Birmingham Town Hall, and Guildford and Chichester Cathedrals).
He recently shared two recitals with Roderick Williams as part of the Momentum Artists project and is reprising his Opéra de Lille performance as Ismeron (The Indian Queen) this Spring with performances at Opera de Caen, Opera de Luxembourg and Antwerp Opera.
Richard Dowling (he/him) is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music’s Opera Course and supported by Opera Prelude. As well as various live performances with English Touring Opera (including Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions), he has appeared in a number of their online broadcasts during lockdown, and in roles for Garsington Opera (in their 2013 and 2015 seasons), Birmingham Opera Company, Buxton International Festival, and as a young artist for Mid-Wales Opera. He sang Pedrillo (The Abduction from the Seraglio) in Tokyo with Diva Opera.
Joanna Songi (she/her) studied at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music and was awarded first place in the Dean and Chadlington Competition, and the Brooks-Van der Pump English Song Competition. She was an Opera Prelude Young Artist, a Philip and Dorothy Green Young Concert Artist Award winner, and a Britten-Pears Young Artist.
As well as performing with companies including Glyndebourne, Garsington Opera, West Green Opera, Opera de Tenerife, the Dunedin Consort, and the English Concert, her recent roles have included Despina for Wild Arts’s Così fan tutte (2022), and a variety of parts in Henry V at the Donmar Warehouse (2022), with a subsequent NT Live Broadcast.
Eddie Wade (he/him) studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and at the National Opera Studio. He won First Prize and the Verdi/Wagner Prize at the National Mozart Competition in 1996 and made his Royal Opera House debut the same year as The Mandarin (Turandot). Eddie furthered his training at the National Opera Studio, sponsored by The Royal Opera and the Sybil Tutton Trust.
He has worked extensively in lead roles with the Royal Opera House, Opera North, Glyndebourne, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, and English Touring Opera, and is known especially for his performances as Baron Douphol in La Traviata.
"Outstanding in a strong cast was the rising star soprano Ella Taylor as redoubtable Fiordiligi, a voice of tempered steel, wrapped in a warm velvet cloak. Martha Jones, as Dorabella, sang with grace, charm and a naughty twinkle; bass Gareth Brynmor John made a forceful, generous-voiced Guglielmo, a nice foil to Richard Dowling’s pleasingly light tenor as Ferrando." The Guardian
"Martha Jones’ Dorabella has a glorious tone that sends shivers down the spine from the first few bars - and keeps up the musical momentum. Fiordiligi, given by Ella Taylor, is a dream of a soprano, while the lads (Richard Dowling and Gareth Brymore-John) sustain the energy the youthful lovers desperately need, throughout the whole rollicking performance." The Cambridge Critique
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