Mozart La finta giardiniera Buxton Festival, July 2013 Director Harry Fehr Lighting John Bishop

The production was nominated for Best Opera at the Manchester Theatre Awards 2014.

Also a new version of it was presented at the Royal College of Music in December 2016.

Reviews 

Fehr and Thavoris took the decision to set the opera in the modern day and to give it a setting which would make sense of the more alarming twists and turns of the plot, so La Finta Giardiniera was re-invented as a modern soap-opera. This had the great advantage of clarity, we knew exactly who was whom and every single member of the cast was brilliantly in character, the result was very convincing and very funny.

The main set was a huge marquee on the side of Don Anchise's house in which the wedding preparations were taking place. For the scene in the forest, we moved to the basement. Again, this was an extremely sensible functional decision, providing Fehr and Thavoris with a realistic environment where it might be believably pitch dark. This scene was very well staged and was, again, very funny. (Planet Hugill)

... Harry Fehr's Buxton staging, vividly designed by Yannis Thavoris and authoritatively conducted by Nicholas Kraemer, makes a surprisingly strong case for this disregarded piece.***** (Guardian)

... brilliantly designed by Yannis Thavoris. (Oxford Times)

The staging is bright and colourful. For the most part we are in a posh marquee, with white drapes and chandeliers, attached to a hotel. Most of the action takes place as the characters busy themselves setting up for a wedding breakfast, all cleverly timed and choreographed. Designer Yannis Thavoris and lighting master John Bishop make it a visual delight. (Manchester Theatre Awards)

Buxton clearly recognise the potential within the work and they get it marvellously right in this delightful production at the 2013 Buxton Festival... (plot exposition) is dealt with in a clever way here in Harry Fehr's production that keeps everything visually interesting and mobile... Every other updating... works wonderfully, not just in keeping with the tone of the work but truly invigorating it... Harry Fehr's brilliant stage direction and Yannis Thavoris' clever set designs... (Opera Journal)

Buxton... pulled off an exceptional production of Mozart’s tricky La Finta Giardiniera, directed by Harry Fehr... (2013: The Year in Review, The Stage)