Mozart: Cosí fan tutte (The Royal Opera)

Kiri Te Kanawa (Fiordiligi); Agnes Baltsa (Dorabella); Daniela Mazzucato (Despina); Stuart Burrowes (Ferrando); Thomas Allen (Guglielmo); Richard Van Allen (Don Alfonso);

Mozart specialist Colin Davis directs an exceptional recording of this witty, sophisticated, compact, comic opera. The superlative cast, including a stellar Kiri Te Kanawa, and the excellent orchestra respond to Davis's finely polished account of the score, deftly balancing the humanity, irony, pain and humour of Da Ponte's complex battle of the sexes.

Reviews

"The conducting of Colin Davis ensures that this is not just a polished performance but a memorable musical and theatrical experience." (The Evening Standard)

"It was a high-level cast; notable features were spontaneous, clear, fluent recitative, audible sotto-voce whisperings, and an electrifying unity in ensemble." (The Stage)

"It offers abundant pleasures. Te Kanawa recorded an earlier Fiordiligi...and a later...: neither manifests the personality and velvety warmth of tone of show here, and her virtuosity in 'Come Scoglio' is staggering. Thomas Allen's Guglielmo, too, is impeccably sung." (BBC Music Magazine)