The final premiere of the current season at Teatro alla Scala in Milan! Surprising, isn't it? The Milanese theatre traditionally opens its season on December 7th, the feast day of the city's patron saint. Therefore, La Scala is still running its 2024-2025 season, which includes one more premiere before it closes: Così fan tutte ossia La scuola degli amanti, a dramma giocoso in two acts, K.588 by Mozart.

Among Mozart's Da Ponte trilogy (The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte), this is the least frequently performed opera at La Scala. That makes even more valuable the presence of Romanian artists in the 20th-century Milanese productions: soprano Viorica Ursuleac (Fiordiligi) in the 1941 staging, tenor Petre Munteanu (Ferrando), and conductor Ionel Perlea in the 1947 production.

Radio România Muzical is the only station to broadcast this performance live (November 5th), offered through the European Broadcasting Union.

The new production of Così fan tutte is directed by Canadian Robert Carsen, with musical direction by Alexander Soddy. At 42, the British conductor currently collaborates with leading European opera houses such as the Vienna State Opera, London's Royal Opera House, and the prestigious Metropolitan Opera in New York.

The cast is an appealing one, featuring young soloists in the two central couples - Franco-Danish soprano Elsa Dreisig (Fiordiligi) and Italian baritone Luca Micheletti (Guglielmo), Dutch mezzo-soprano Nina van Essen (Dorabella) and Italian tenor Giovanni Sala (Ferrando) - alongside two seasoned artists who embody the characters driving the plot: French soprano Sandrine Piau (Despina) and Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley (Don Alfonso), aged 60 and 65 respectively. They will be joined by the Chorus (prepared by Alberto Malazzi) and the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala. This lineup ensures a credible production from the outset, with performers whose profiles perfectly match their roles. We look forward to hearing them and discovering how deeply they will impress us musically. So, I invite you on Wednesday, November 5th, at 21:00, during a special edition of the program Opera, a World on Radio România Muzical, to listen live from Teatro alla Scala, Milan, the premiere of the new production of the opera Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I will comment on the performance together with mezzo-soprano Oana Andra, an excellent connoisseur of this score, which she has performed in two different productions at the Bucharest National Opera.