DALLAS — The Dallas Opera has staged another winner with "Cosi Fan Tutte," an intimate, even beautiful comic opera by Mozart, written in the late 1700s near the end of his life and currently performed on stage with wit and glamor at The Winspear Opera House.
This production features British baritone and superb actor Sir Thomas Allen as Don Alfonso, a casino croupier, who makes a bet with two young men that their fiances will not remain faithful.
The women, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, are ultimately baited and tricked by their men, who later show up in disguise making advances.
What makes this opera so compelling is Mozart's constant use of duets, delicately sung by Jennifer Holloway and Elza van den Heever.
With one intermission, "Cosi Fan Tutte" runs a lengthy three-and-a-half hours, and will test your patience. However, Maestro Graeme Jenkins' use of the harpsichord and attention to luscious detail fills the magnificent Winspear with some of the most beautiful music of the season.
Love, betrayal, trust and trickery — it's all on stage now in one of Mozart's finest works.
E-mail gcogill@wfaa.com
