There are elements of Eurotrash in this outdoor Aix-en-Provence summer opera production. Nevertheless, the splendid singing and acting transform the story, normally treated as farce, into something considerably more serious. As many other critics have noted, the young lovers have not yet sorted everything out as this performance ends. Act One begins with the principal characters running around in the outdoor theater -- while the audience takes it in as if they had been advised to sit back and enjoy the novelty. Very likely they were also asked to refrain from applauding at the end of arias and ensemble pieces, in which the three-hour opera abounds.
Sophie Koch
as Dorabella
Ana María Martínez
as Fiordiligi
Stephanie Degout
as Guglielmo
Shawn Mathey
as Ferrando
Helen Donath
as Despina
Thomas Allen
as Don Alfonso
Manfred Honeck
as Conductor
Wiener Philharmoniker
as
