Cosi Fan tutte

Opera Vermont invites you to Highland Center for the Arts for a bold new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte - a story where love is tested, identities are swapped, and emotions explode in every direction.

Opera Meets the Comic Book

In this reimagining, we lean into the opera’s larger-than-life heart, its razor-sharp comedy, and its sudden, surprising ache: all by connecting Così to the visual language of classic comic books. Using technology to evoke the look and rhythm of comic-book paneling, scenes snap into focus like frames on a page. Flirtation changes color, a scheme becomes a split-screen, a confession lands like a leaden speech bubble.

Large Than Life - Because It’s Real

Così fan tutte is gut-bustingly funny - until it simply isn’t. It’s playful - until it hurts. Mozart and Da Ponte give us characters who laugh, pose, and perform… and then, in the next beat, reveal something painfully human underneath. Our comic-book-inspired world heightens that contrast, letting the audience feel the whiplash between farce and sincerity, between the thrill of the game and the cost of each of their truths.

Synopsis:

Two young students, Fred and William, are certain their fiancées, sisters Flora and Bella, would never amorously stray. Their older friend Alfonso, (or as they call him, The Fonz) disagrees, and proposes a bet: if the men follow his plan, they’ll learn what “true love” looks like when it’s pushed, tempted, and tested.

At The Fonz’s urging, Fred and William pretend they’ve been called away, only to return in disguise - each determined to win the other man’s girl - just to prove the point that they can. Meanwhile, the sisters’ witty maid Desi gets pulled into the scheme, offering “helpful” advice and comic interventions that keep the plot spinning faster and faster.

What begins as a playful experiment turns complicated almost immediately. Flirtation becomes confusion; confidence becomes doubt. As feelings grow real inside a game that was supposed to be pretend, everyone is forced to ask the same question: when the masks come off, can love return to what it was - or has the truth changed everything?

Come experience Così fan tutte as you’ve never seen it before: a fast-moving, visually dynamic production where music, storytelling, and modern design collide - bringing the opera’s comedy and tragedy into vivid, panel-by-panel life.