Detroit Opera will present three performances of Mozart’s “Così fan tutte,” in a new operatic staging by Artistic Director Yuval Sharon.
The production, running April 5, 11, and 13, is a futuristic take on Mozart’s dark comedy about human relationships via an exploration of artificial intelligence, with Don Alfonso’s “school for lovers” recast as a laboratory where the four lovers are his robotic inventions, created with the support of Despina.
The two couples play out their creator’s Faustian manipulations.
The premise: Will this laboratory of lovers lead to a breakthrough for “Humanity 2.0,” or are human habits of jealousy and deceit hardwired into us?
Corinna Niemeyer will make her U.S. conducting debut with Così. The cast will include, as the opera’s two central couples, soprano Olivia Boen (Fiordiligi), mezzo-soprano Emily Fons (Dorabella), tenor Joshua Blue (Ferrando), and baritone Thomas Lehman (Guglielmo).
Baritone Ed Parks will sing the role of Don Alfonso, and soprano Ann Toomey will be featured as Despina.
“This new take on Mozart’s most controversial comedy will be an exploration of artificial intelligence,” says Sharon. “With a resolutely futuristic look, the comedy of Così will emerge in a surprisingly organic way.
“The production explores the connection between the Enlightenment-era belief of ‘humans as machines,’ and the origin for contemporary explorations of what current thinkers are imagining as the ‘post-human,’ or ‘Humanity 2.0.’ As anxieties proliferate about AI, this production offers the opportunity for reflection on this phenomenon in a way that only opera can.
“This production is neither alarmist nor boosterish when it comes to taking a position on AI. It is, instead, ambivalent: if there is a way to transcend human capacity for suffering and cruelty, shouldn’t we pursue it? On the other hand, what is in danger of being lost forever with the advent of AI?
“We are considering the human legacy of creativity and individual expression that threatens to be so successfully reproducible digitally as to make art itself on the verge of obsolescence. At that precipice, why do we do opera? Isn’t it precisely to explore the full range of what it means to be human — even if that species may soon be eclipsed by whatever comes next?”
Così fan tutte
- Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte
- Sung in Italian with projected English translations
- Conductor: Corinna Niemeyer
- Director: Yuval Sharon
- Set Designer: dots
- Sound Designer: Jody Elff
- Costume Designer: Oana Botez
- Lighting Designer: Yuki Nakase Link
- Projection Designers: Yana Biryukova, Hana Sooyeon Kim
- Wig and Makeup Designer: Joanne Middleton-Weaver
- Chorus Master: Suzanne Mallare Acton
- Fiordiligi: Olivia Boen (soprano)
- Dorabella: Emily Fons (mezzo-soprano)
- Despina: Ann Toomey (soprano)
- Ferrando: Joshua Blue (tenor)
- Guglielmo: Thomas Lehman (baritone)
- Don Alfonso): Edward Parks (baritone)
The show times include Sat., April 5, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.; Fri., April 11, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.; and Sun., April 13, 2025, at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets start at $30, and are available at detroitopera.org or tickets@detroitopera.org.
