Mozart The Garden of Disguises, in a new translation by John Warrack

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Experience Ensemble
Eamonn Dougan (conductor)
Nina Brazier (director)
Alice Privett (Sandrina)
Kieran Carrel (Belfiore)
Clare Tunney (Arminda)
Anna Harvey (Ramiro)
Jessica Cale (Serpetta)
Harry Thatcher (Nardo)
Robin Horgan (Podesta)

Mozart – The Garden of Disguises (La Finta Giardiniera, in a new translation by John Warrack)

Seven characters with complicated love lives meet an eighteen-year-old composer full of imagination and musical genius. Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera, performed here in the world premiere of John Warrack’s new translation The Garden of Disguises, is full of lyrical beauty, human foibles and dramatic intrigue. Sandrina is a high-born girl, so why has she disguised herself as a gardener to find work in the Mayor’s household? The Mayor falls head-over-heels in love with his new ‘garden girl’, much to the annoyance of his servant, Serpetta, who would like to marry her rich employer. The good-natured (but poor) Nardo is waiting in the wings if she doesn’t!  Meanwhile, the mayor’s highly-strung niece Arminda is supposed to marry Ramiro, but only has eyes for Belfiore. He’s a man with something to hide, who feels a strange, inexplicable and entirely reciprocated attraction to the disguised Sandrina… This is an opera of secrets and lies, but also of forgiveness and reconciliation – and these are qualities that Mozart can express in music like none other.

‘with its unerring knack of flushing out operas that are ideally suited to their surroundings Ryedale Festival Opera has hit the target yet again… there were only nine singers, but not a weak link among them… vivacious, emotional and clear toned… a poignant and rewarding show’ – Opera magazine