Mozart's comedic opera performed as reality TV

New Philharmonic gives Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte" (Women Are Like That) a reality television twist in performances this month at the College of DuPage.

Director Jonathan Field stage directs this popular comedic opera, giving audiences the chance to pick from one of three endings for their performance. "Cosi fan tutte" will be performed in Italian with English supertitles. Free MAC chats provided by Maestro Kirk Muspratt will precede each performance.

In "Cosi fan tutte," two young men wager that their fiancees will remain faithful even when tempted. To prove it, they decide to do the tempting themselves. The questions of desire and fidelity enter into what is ultimately an exploration of love conducted with a mix of drama and biting comedy.

Field, who directed New Philharmonic's productions of "Gianni Schicchi" in 2011 and "Madama Butterfly" in 2012, has become one of America's more versatile and popular stage directors. A trailblazer in the world of opera, he has developed and used video-projected scenery for more than 25 years in productions that have been called "brilliant," "dazzling" and "riveting."

The cast for "Cosi fan tutte" features Jessica Faselt (Fiordiligi); Kathryn Leemhuis (Dorabella), Paul Scholten (Guglielmo), Aaron Short (Ferrando), Leo Radosavlijevic (Don Alfonso) and Angela De Venuto (Despina).

Faselt, a soprano, performed the lead role of Fiordiligi in "Cosi fan Tutte" last year at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and served as an apprentice artist with the Des Moines Metro Opera. Leemhuis, a mezzo-soprano, was featured in both New Philharmonic's "Gianni Schicci" and "Madama Butterfly."

Scholten, a baritone seen most recently at the MAC in "Madama Butterfly," was a young artist in the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Short, a tenor, has served as an apprentice artist with the Santa Fe Opera, where he performed the roles of First Prisoner in "Fidelio" and the Fourth Jew in "Salome." Last summer, Wilmette's Radosavlijevic, a baritone, participated in Ravinia Festival's Steans Young Artist Program, where he performed Schubert, Liszt, Beethoven, Ives.

Some of soprano De Venuto's operatic highlights include Adele in "Die Fledermaus," Emily Webb in "Our Town," Fiametta in "The Gondoliers" and Peep-Bo in "The Mikado," all with DePaul Opera Theatre, as well as performances with Northwest Chicago Symphony and Northwestern University.

Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24, at the McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn.

Tickets are $55; $53 senior/youth. A limited number of $10 student tickets also will be available with valid student ID. To order tickets, call (630) 942-4000 or visit atthemac.org.