Cosi Fan Tutte for St Albans Chamber Opera

Mozart’s opera, Cosi Fan Tutte, is being performed by St Albans Chamber Opera (SACO) at the Abbey Theatre next week.

The popular opera includes some memorable music as it tells the tale of the elderly roué Don Alfonso who challenges his two young friends Guglielmo and Ferrando to prove that their fiancées Fiordiligi and Dorabella will be true to them if they left for a while.

Don Alfonso makes a bet with them and persuades the boys to leave and come back disguised and woo each other’s fiancée. The boys go along with the trick, thinking they will win the bet.

Don Alfonso elicits the help of Despina, the girls maid, to help him in the subterfuge and the lovers manage to tie themselves in knots.

SACO have set the production of Cosi in early 1914 before people really believed there was going to be a war. It is towards the end of the Arts and Crafts movement, which has inspired designer Paula Chitty to have the two principal ladies as suffragettes while Don Alfonso is from the establishment.

Chairman of SACO, Peter Kestner, said: “We have two excellent casts and it has been fascinating working with both teams. Although playing the same characters and singing the same music, each singer has approached their character in a different way and has developed and made them their own, bringing them to life in their own way.”

Cosi Fan Tutte is being performed at the theatre at Westminster Lodge at 7.30pm from next Tuesday, March 25, until Saturday, March 29, with a Saturday matinee as well at 2.30pm.

Tickets cost £16-£18 and are available from the box office on 01727 857861 or online at www.abbeytheatre.org.uk.