Landgirls tangle with fake GIs in a new Così fan tutte, discovers Nicola Lisle

‘I’d like to do opera,” Marios Papadopoulos, founder and music director of Oxford Philomusica, told me back in December 2012. “We don’t do opera, and I love opera.”

Now his wish is about to come true, as Oxford Philomusica puts on its debut opera, Così fan tutte, for two nights at the New Theatre, Oxford.

Helping to bring his vision to life is director Poppy Burton-Morgan of the London-based Metta Theatre, which she and her set/lighting designer husband William Reynolds set up in 2005 when they were both students here at Oxford.

This will be Così as you’ve never seen it before, with the action shifted from 18th-century Naples to a rural seaside town in wartime Britain. Fiordiligi (Julia Kogan) and Dorabella (Anna Lapkovskaja) are now landgirls, engaged to soldiers Ferrando (Thomas Hobbs) and Guglielmo (Benedict Nelson), while Don Alfonso (opera doyen Donald Maxwell) is a lord of the manor who might also be a conscientious objector.

At the cynical Don Alfonso’s suggestion, the two soldiers pretend to have been called back to the Front and then return disguised as American GIs.

For Poppy Burton-Morgan, updating the opera makes it more believable for today’s audiences.

“It’s a really neat concept in terms of making sense of the soldiers and disguises, but also that whole wartime setting is a world in which any one of them might die at any time,” she explains.

“It justifies the quickness with which they throw over their old loves and take up with new ones. It’s a world in which people were clutching at love and clutching at life because it could end at any moment.

“The big thing is how to tell this story in a way that makes it feel human and resonant. And actually it’s a really heart-warming love story, as well as a comment on the fickleness of both women and men.”

While not making the production overtly feminist, Poppy was determined to challenge the perceived misogyny of the original.

“Female directors don’t often direct Così and there is this assumption that it’s misogynist, so we’ve tried hard to subvert that but also make the female characters active, strong women. That’s why they’re landgirls, not the sort of sappy opera heroines that you might expect.

“So it’s secretly feminist, but not in a bra-burning way. It’s just that these are real women rather than archetypes.”

Poppy is looking forward to returning to the city of her alma mater.

“There’s such a significant music scene and opera-literate audience in Oxford, and it’s a real pleasure to play to those audiences, knowing that they’re getting every nuance and reading more into it than you intended! So I love returning to Oxford.

“I’m feeling excited. A little nervous, but mostly excited!”

Cosi fan tutte
New Theatre, Oxford
May 1 and 3, 7pm
Tickets: Call 0844 871 3020 or visit atgtickets.com/oxford