<<  -- 6 --  Roderic Dunnett    COMIC TOUCHES

So too did the positively Beethovenian storm in the pit and the visible downpour through which the sisters were disgorged onstage, all sopping umbrellas and plastic supermarket bags round their feet, for the final showdown. Fine though Kasarova's forgiving aria was, it was surely the great Sextet, 'Questo e un nodo avvilupato' ('This mess badly needs unravelling'), one of Rossini's finest conceits, unfolded by Pido (for all its stupefied maestoso) like a slow, curiously dignified Purcellian catch, that took the honours : the ugly girls, once again, sounded marginally better wrapped in ensemble.

When Kasarova launched into 'Signor, ...', her appeal to the impetuous Ramiro to forbear from anger, the pathos -- her tone, gesture and self-conscious but unassuming stance all contribute to this -- was palpable. Sadly the directors let the finale unfold in an ungainly lateral line (albeit well framed at the sides by the three losers); but none of this could deter from the power of Cinderella's 'My only revenge will be to pardon them', and the glorious change of tone by Kasarova midway to highlight the onset of the new order. Slow, measured, spacious, here was an 'enlightened' performance indeed. On any reckoning, Rolls-Royce standard.