Christopher Gray applauds this summer’s lusty and fun-loving opening productions from Garsington Opera

In its fifth season in the glorious setting of Wormsley, Garsington Opera returns in its opening productions to two operas that have featured in its past repertoire, Richard Strauss’s Intermezzo, last seen in 2001, and Mozart’s Così fan tutte, being aired for the fifth time. Both introduce directors new to the company, Bruno Ravella for the first and John Fulljames for the second; and both supply rich musical and visual delight.

The pairing is apt, for Così was one of Strauss’s ‘top three’ operas whose elevation into the pantheon of Mozart’s work was assisted by his championing of it. Besides, like Intermezzo, it deals with sexual infidelity, in this case real rather than imagined. How ‘real’ is demonstrated by the post-coital brandishing by Guglielmo (baritone Ashley Riches) of a pair of red knickers to show he has successfully seduced Dorabella (mezzo-soprano Kathryn Rudge), the betrothed of his army colleague Ferrando (Robin Tritschler).

Some have judged this a tacky take on the opera; likewise the peeing behind the marquee (the setting is a smart wedding) by Neil Davies’s Don Alfonso, the old roué who has bet the two officers that their respective fiancées – Guglielmo’s is the somewhat primmer Fiordiligi (soprano Andreea Soare) – will soon submit to other males if given the opportunity.

This is supplied, following the pretend departure to the wars of the two soldiers, who actually stick around, in silly disguise as Albanians, to put the women to the test. To my eyes, however, all this looked to be an amusing illustration of the larkiness for which Garsington has become noted. Likewise the performance of soprano Lesley Garrett, as the servant Despina, seen at one point disappearing under a table with a handsome soldier. That she looks, in her specs, uncannily like Hi-de-Hi’s chalet maid Peggy only adds to the farce-like feel. I need hardly say that under the baton of Douglas Boyd, there is nothing in the least bit farce-like in the music.

Sexual irregularity is imagined in the lushly musical Intermezzo (conductor Jac van Steen), based on a real episode in the composer’s life in which his jealous wife became convinced he was ‘playing away’ after opening a letter seemingly for Strauss but actually intended for someone with a similar name.

Mary Dunleavy sings brilliantly as Christine, who might seem to have a just grievance against a husband (Mark Stone) who thinks it affectionate to call her “a scrubbing brush”.