Cosi fan tutte at Academy of Vocal Arts. (Photo by Don Valentino)

Così fan tutte, Mozart’s final Italian comedy with Lorenzo Da Ponte, is this season’s heaviest lift for Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA). Hell, it’s a heavy lift for any opera company, clocking in at three-plus hours, with formidable vocal and theatrical challenges for six principals.

Yet that’s also why it’s such a good fit for rising young singers. Each and every role is a star part, really. The cast here was exceptionally strong, occasionally even revelatory—gratifyingly, this has become the AVA norm. Conductor Christofer Macatsoris delivered a propulsive, cogent reading of the score, and got very good playing from his orchestra (the winds especially)…

Read the full review at Parterre Box.