Intelligence can get dull. Jonathan Miller’s Cosi, revived at the Opera House, is a lucid and insightful take on the work. But it also lacks charm, and you have to wait a while before its cleverness comes near compensating for that.

The set is a large room, all white, with a fine, classically framed doorway. Nor do the lovers initially colour the stage. The group scenes of the first act are untouched by comedy. I saw no distinction between and little interest in Troy Cook’s Gugliemo and Charles Castronovo’s Ferrando-Cityboys, who woo each other’s fiancés in the weird disguise of Hell’s Angels. Sally Matthews’s Fiordiligi is annoyingly trenchant in refusal.

Nino Surguladze as the flightier Dorabella aims for amusing confusion but misfires. 

Helene Schneiderman’s Despina is likeable but should be funnier than this. In sync, conductor Julia Jones delivers a poised reading of Mozart’s score that is often lovely but never too anything.

The restraint does, however, reap rewards as the lovers pair off in the second act. With comic duties lessened, they up their game. Matthews steals the evening, her earlier harshness made worthwhile by contrast. Her guilt is confessed in “Per pieta”, and in her duet with Castronovo “Fra gli amplessi”, her fall is that of a serious woman: hard won, deeply felt and so sexy for it.
www.roh.org.uk.