Mozart's AI Comedy

Flirtation and fidelity are the order of the day in Mozart's sublime opera buffa Cosi Fan Tutte (which translates are 'women are all, and always so'). Produced by Yuval Sharon, this unique adaptation re-sets the story into something asking questions more akin to modern societal worries about Artificial Intelligence, with Don Alfonso's creation of robotic lovers making audiences consider what it is to be human and what it could mean in future.

What is the story?

In the original story, sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella (in this version taking the form of AI robots!) are persistently wooed by a pair of foreigners while their soldier fiances are away at war, but this is just a test of fidelity set up by the philosophizing master of ceremonies, Don Alfonso who gains a collaborator in Despina the maid. Alas, the foreigners are in fact they're betrothed in disguise. Guglielmo and Ferrando set out to seduce the other's partner in order to win the wager set before them by Alfonso. Over the course of the deception, the young couple's definition of love and certainty is thrown off-kilter, with their feelings revealed to us through Mozart's masterful score.