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A loggy "Cosi" without wit or vivacity

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 03/23/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"On paper it must have seemed like an ideal project to record Haitink's versions of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Glyndebourne. Not only was this England's beloved summer opera house but the place where Mozart performance reached a high standard under the legendary Fritz Busch. But the result was disappointing all aorund, not least in this flat, serious, straitlaced "Cosi" released in 1987.



Haitink has fitful moments of enthusiasm, but on the whole the performance is a trudge through the score, however elegantly played by the London Phil. and nicely recorded by EMI. The cast, listed below in full, was vocally attractive and had the benefit of stage experience together before the recording was made. One would be delighted to meet them on a balmy summer eve. But there's no spark in any portrayal. How could there be when Haitink is so cautious and humorless from the podium? (Even the trsuty partisans at the Gramophone frowned over this one.)



In short, EMI would have done better just to let this proficient, dull recording stay out of the catalog.



Così fan tutte,K588.

Carol Vaness sop Fiordiligi ; Lillian Watson sop Despina ; Delores Ziegler mez Dorabella ; John Aler ten Ferrando ; Dale Duesing bar Guglielmo ; Claudio Desderi bass Don Alfonso



Glyndebourne Festival Chorus; London Philharmonic Orchestra/Bernard Haitink



"