Boston Midsummer Opera presents Cosi Fan Tutte August 4, 2009

Boston area audiences will experience a timeless Mozart masterpiece when Boston Midsummer Opera (BMO) presents their summer 2009 production, Cosi Fan Tutte. Playing at the Tsai Performance Center at Boston University for three performances only, August 5, 7 and 9, this modern adaptation of Mozart’s popular opera about contradictions of the heart features today’s rising stars. Sung in English and performed with a full orchestra, the fully staged and costumed production is conducted by the nationally acclaimed and Boston favorite Susan Davenny-Wyner.

Mozart’s final collaboration with librettist Lorenzo DaPonte, Cosi Fan Tutte premiered in Vienna in 1790. BMO Artistic Director Drew Minter first gave his successful translation and adaptation of the profound comedy for the company Opera Aperta in Boston in 2000, in a critically acclaimed production that was popular with audiences, selling out after the opening performance. Minter’s updated vision of the piece places the action in a country club on the Connecticut coast near New London. The two male protagonists are graduates of the sub base, and their girlfriends are wealthy coeds on summer vacation from their Seven Sisters schools. Despina, the lady’s maid in Mozart’s original, serves as the tennis club’s snack bar attendant, and the men’s older friend Alfonso is a tennis player in the club. Since his production nine years ago, Minter has made updates with a new and improved translation, keeping DaPonte’s rhyme schemes for the most part, but translating them to current style American English.

Performances of Cosi Fan Tutte are Wednesday, August 5 and Friday, August 7 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, August 9 at 3 p.m. at the Tsai Performance Center at Boston University, 685 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Tickets, priced at $50.00 to $20.00 (plus a $5.00 handling fee per ticket order) for all performances, are available by calling 617-227-0442, online at www.bostonmidsummeropera.org, or by mailing a request to Boston Midsummer Opera, Box 513, 66 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114.

For more information, visit www.bostonmidsummeropera.org.

Official Website: http://www.bostonmidsummeropera.org