TO say Cosi fan tutte is a masterpiece is something of an understatement.

But it needs to be repeated because even a masterpiece can be dragged down by a shoddy performance.

Happily that was certainly not the case when Opera North once again brought Tim Albery’s version of Mozart’s dark, sexy tale of the fickle nature of the human heart to the Lowry.

To work, Cosi has to draw on superlative performances from all six of the characters: the two loving couples Ferrando and Dorabella, Gugliemo and Fiordiligi along with the scheming Don Alfonso who sparks the wager that the women will prove unfaithful, and his partner in crime, the maidservant Despina.

Geoffrey Dolton was a suitably Machiavellian Don Alfonso while Charlotte Ellett was excellent as the waspish servant on the make, herself displaying highly dubious loyalty for a fistful of scudi.

As the sisters, Elizabeth Atherton and Victoria Simmonds and Jacques Imbrailo and Robert Murray playing the two friends were on outstanding form… no mean feat given the intensity and demands of the singing to be sustained for three hours with one ‘showstopper’ after another.

The singers produced a perfectly measured transition from cast-iron certainty, through initial repulsion, to acceptance, ultimate seduction and total confusion.

This staging was as crisp and refreshing as the night air outside the theatre and when you emerge feeling uplifted by one of the mightiest souls of music, you know it’s job well done.

By Steve Leary.