Cosi fan tutte: Inside the Rehearsal Room

By Heidi Vaughan, Artistic Director, Tobacco Factory Theatres

There’s a particular electricity in the rehearsal room for Così fan tutte. Six singers gathered around an upright piano, voices weaving through Mozart’s radiant score, a creative team relishing both the detail and the humour — it’s the kind of atmosphere that reminds you why we come back to this piece again and again.

Earlier this week, the company were deep in a scene of entanglement — two couples circling one another, testing love and loyalty in ways that are at once comic and excruciatingly human. To watch the cast discover this in real time — singing, joking, sparring their way through the text — is a delight. The comedy gleams, but so does the emotional truth. Mozart and Da Ponte never let us forget that, however playful the disguises, hearts are very much at stake.

That balance between wit and vulnerability is the essence of Così. Already in rehearsal, you can see the characters emerging: one sister holding fast to reason, the other already drawn to temptation; the men so sure of themselves until the ground shifts beneath them; Despina darting in with irrepressible mischief; and Alfonso presiding with a wry detachment that is equal parts philosopher and trickster.

If you joined us for The Marriage of Figaro last year, you’ll remember the particular chemistry Opera Project bring to Tobacco Factory Theatres: chamber-scale Mozart, sung in English, where the intimacy of the space heightens every glance, every aside, every turn of phrase. This Così has that same fizz — sharpened by the warmth and insight our own producing team (who working towards Rapunzel: A hairy tale) always bring to the room.

This isn’t opera at a distance. It’s immediate, generous, alive. And it’s a chance to hear one of Mozart’s most dazzling scores played out in close quarters, where the comedy bites and the tenderness lingers.

We can’t wait to share it with you: six lovers, two precarious schemes, and music that continues to astonish with its wit, its beauty, and its humanity.