Così fan tutte

Come back to the mischief!

A quirky comedy about two men as naughty as Mozart himself… and the women who teach them a lesson.

The follies and foibles of young love are on full display in this timeless comedy of (bad) manners. Encouraged by a cynical old bachelor, a simple bet becomes hilariously complex when young lovers don disguises, aiming to trick their fiancées into infidelity. Will these “new suitors” be successful in their wooing? And if they are – who wins?

This gloriously passionate romp brims with some of the sweetest music Mozart ever wrote, as clumsy romancers get cozy with catastrophe.

“Miraculous music didn’t prevent the 19th century from finding Così trivial and contrived. In the 20th, gradually the sense that this may be the most profound of Mozart’s Italian comedies gained the upper hand. There are certainly many deeply insightful moments throughout, including the pain of personal betrayal; the character development of soprano and tenor is as humanly real as anything in Mozart, and the conundrum of the finale, unresolved in either text or music, makes a cliched lieto fine (happy ending) unthinkable. Strauss loved Così more than anything in the world of music. Not hard to understand why.”
– Timothy Vernon, Founding Artistic Director

Vannina Santoni as Fiordiligi, Gaelle Arquez as Dorabella, Florian Sempey as Guglielmo and Laurent Naori as Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, 2022. Theatre des Champs Elysees. Photo by Vincent Pontet