

06/06/2006
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

Vienna Philharmonic
as
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