Covent Garden never lets Rossini down

After the celebrated production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola designed by Els Comediants for the Welsh National Opera a month ago, the stakes were high in Britain’s operatic scene. Catalan theatre group Els Comediants succeeded in putting on an entertaining show portraying this opera as a fairy tale. To do so, they even resorted to using men dressed up as mice -an ironic reference to Disney’s Cinderella. That was a bit too much. The function of these men was twofold. First, they helped moving furniture around and changing the sets, which was good. Second, they eased the consciences of Els Comediants who, as is almost always the case with theatre directors who also do opera, were obviously anxious about the statism of the operatic genre and filled the stage with unnecesary elements, moving them around relentlessly. That was not good.Moshe…