The eighth revival of Jonathan Miller's Royal Opera House production of Mozart's Così Fan Tutte is, if anything, even finer now than when it was first performed in 1995, when most of the interest seemed to be generated by the Giorgio Armani costumes. They have long since been dumped, and have been replaced by "normal-looking" modern dress for this run.
But the clothes are not the point. Così is a troubling opera. It is, supposedly, a comedy. Yet on so many levels it reminds me of a Pinter play. It has jokes and the audience laughs. Should they? Isn't the reality of what is happening on stage deeply upsetting?
Take the story, which is plain old misogyny. Two friends, engaged to a pair of sisters, are persuaded for a bet to pretend to be different people and woo each others' fiancées. The women talk a good game of fidelity but when push comes to shove hop into bed with the latest bloke to ask them.
The title itself - roughly "all women are the same" - rams home the basic idea that women are, without exception, loose and not to be trusted.
