Music / Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte, Opera Australia,  Sydney Opera House, until August 17. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA.

Così Fan Tutte (usually translated as something like “women are all like that”) bears one of the most sexist titles in the whole operatic canon.

It also has one of the most ridiculous plots in all opera – and that’s saying something.

But in the hands of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his librettist Lorenze da Ponte, it all it proves pretty inoffensive, so that you’d have to say “men are all like that” too.

Given all the above, I must confess to a little apprehension as I sat down for Cosi, but I needn’t have worried, for in the hands of one of the very greatest operatic directors, Sir David McVicar, and Greek conductor Zoe Zeniodi, whom we interviewed recently, all doubts were swept away — and even if it weren’t so, this very late opera rejoices in some the most exquisite music Mozart ever wrote.

Just as he has done with the other two “Italian” operas by Mozart and da Ponte, The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, McVicar (and now revival director Andy Morton) simply takes the plot, improbabilities and all, and goes for it.

McVicar has an extraordinary way with his operatic actors, as he has them reacting to every nuance and interchange between the sexes.

Così fan Tutte is schematic at one level, with  two sets of lovers and a pair of schemers, making for an even six and some brilliant vocal sextets to follow.

Curiously, and one hardly noticed it, there is no chorus in the first half and not all that much in the second, so the musical interchanges are intense and focused.

Most surprising of all was the degree of passion in this Cosi, for this is no perfunctory treatment of Mozart’s love story, but one that gets the full treatment.

For those not in the know, a pair of handsome soldiers, Guglielmo (Nathan Lay) and Ferrando (Filipe Manu) test the fidelity of their girlfriends, sisters Fiordiligi (Nardus Williams) and Dorabella (Helen Sherman) by dressing up as fake Albanian princes and attempting to seduce them, as part of a bet with the older Don Alfonso (Canberra-trained Richard Anderson). They take the bait.

As the fierier of the two girls, Fiordiligi, Williams’s rich, velvety voice and assertive stage presence ensured a stylish and passionate performance. She  takes up her battle of the sexes with vigour, also reaching moments of great delicacy in the final act as a reconciliation is achieved.

As her sisterly counterpart, Dorabella, Sherman brings  a cheeky, flighty kind of nuance to every moment as she succumbs to the unexpected advances while as the conniving Don Alfonso, Anderson is brilliantly clear, even if his motivations are not.

The roles are evenly handed-out in Così, but there is one which dazzles – Despina the ladies’ maid, played by Alexandra Oomens.

Despina is very much like the clever servant from the commedia dell’arte, able to take on disguises with perfect credibility, gloriously cynical, advising the sisters to have a good time while their men are away, and definitely on the take from the Don.

Oomens’ s vocal dexterity and skilful acting brought absolute realism to an over-the-top part.

Cosi is an unusual opera in that it is an intimate piece for six people, but with six beautifully balanced voices and six terrific actors, nobody’s complaining.