Longborough opera returns with a luxury picnic and an odd but enjoyable "Cosi"

By the time I left university, I believed I had mastered the art of the tailgate picnic. The coordinated line up of cars mustered early enough to pick a prime spot. The careful division of culinary responsibilities. The bright flags to help guests find you in the crowd and the decorations to make you look classy. I now realise, of course, that I was a rank amateur.

For the ultimate sports tailgate I must give a nod to my cousin, who sets up a pavilion before every USC game with his best mate (who actually kitted out a four-wheel drive specifically for the purpose) so elaborate it's been featured on the Food Channel. But for the elegance award, I have to hand it to the Brits.

It's country house opera season again, and the black tie picnic is at least as much a part of the event as the opera itself.

After our deep enjoyment of the Longborough Festival last year (see 27.710) we decided to become members, and are now counting on at least two weekends each summer spent ensconced in luxurious B&B at the Windy Ridge Estate while taking in opera next door. This year's first outing: Cosi Fan Tutti. Piers' brother and sister-in-law joined us. We did the food, while they brought wine and setting. Together, we arrived properly on the opera tailgating map.

We drove their four-wheel drive over in the late afternoon, parking it in a prime spot at the top of the field next to the croquet lawn, with a lovely view of the manor house, the opera house and the valley stretching beyond. Up went the tented pavilion, large enough to encompass the tailgate of the car within one side, and beneath it a table and four chairs. In the back of the car, a mini fridge was cooling down the white wine. Having claimed our spot, we abandoned it temporarily, strolling back through the arboretum to the manor house to change into formal wear.

An hour and a half later the boys were in dinner jackets, pulling corks and filling glasses while we girls lounged in our gowns and checked out the tented city of silks, velvet and bow ties that had grown around us. Our pre-opera starter menu centred around arancini di riso, a southern Italian classic. Balls of risotto, wrapped around a piece of mozzarella, then lightly rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried to a golden brown. Piers has recently discovered a delicious recipe for roasted red pepper relish, which works magnificently with a bit of cream cheese in a croustade cup. Add some caramelised onion houmous and a pot of taramasalata with a pile of fresh pitta bread, and we had the Mediterranean on our table. (Sadly, the cool, overcast, breezy afternoon was solidly English. English April.)

Half way through the opera comes a 90-minute dinner interval, during which the Bencard pavilion served cold roast beef, string beans with roasted tomatoes and a horseradish potato salad, all accompanied by a lovely French red wine. As the evening gathered in we did realise that we were lacking in lanterns, torches or some other suitably romantic form of illumination. We'll have to work on that. The American in me came to the fore at dessert, with brownies and cookies laced with dark and white chocolate and macadamia nuts. After that, it's perhaps no surprise that the platter of French cheeses never made it to the table. Had we emerged from the opera into a balmy evening, we might have lingered beneath our pavilion watching the stars blink over Gloucestershire while we nibbled. But the firm chill in the air dictated a quick strike of the picnic camp and a return to Windy Ridge's sitting room for a warming port.

And the opera? I have seen Cosi Fan Tutti before, in the magnificent spectacle of a box in a tiny baroque opera house in Prague (see 12.5.08), but with the surtitles in Czech I will admit to only grasping the basics of the plot. This time the English text provided details which I'm not sure actually helped my enjoyment. Cosi is neither Mozart's most engaging story, nor his best operatic score. The preposterous and rather depressing tale has an old cynic convincing two young men that all women are fickle, then setting out to entrap their lovers (a pair of sisters) into cheating on them by putting the boys in costume, sending them after the girl who is not their love and wooing persistently. Each sister eventually falls in love with the other's fiance, before all is revealed and they go back to their original pairings with an acknowledgement that such knocks are inevitable in relationships.

While Cosi doesn't have any of the instantly recognisable arias of Mozart's other operas, the repeated seduction attempts of the plot mean that it's pretty much two hours of achingly romantic songs of longing. Nothing to complain about there. We found the whole Longborough experience just as wonderful as last year, with spectacular singers and a stirring orchestra performing in an intimate space. (We were in a box hanging directly over the harpsichordist, a spectacle that provided an extra bit of entertainment.)

My only complaint is the director's odd decision to transpose the action to the 1950s. I don't mind seeing the classics staged in other time periods. It's a time-honoured way of demonstrating that the great works are eternal, and sometimes they work even better. Certainly the 1995 film version of Richard III set in a fascist 1930s England is the finest interpretation of that play I've ever seen. But I need a reason for my transpositions, and I didn't see one here. Was there anything particular about the '50s that made the tale of infidelity resonate? I didn't see it. Meanwhile, the short hair and conservative dress of the 50s made the "disguises" of our returning lovers difficult to swallow. If forced into the modern era, why not set things in the late '60s, with Vietnam as the military backdrop and hippies providing a convincing disguise for clean-cut soldiers?

Still, no harm done. The set design was pleasant if uninspiring, and the womens' costumes were attractive. I can't help thinking I liked the staging in Prague better, but knowing what was going on made for a superior overall opera experience. As, of course, did the luxury picnic. Next up is a return to Wagner in late July. Back to just the two of us, so the set up will no doubt be less grand. I'm still hoping, however, for that balmy evening under the Gloucestershire stars.