Così fan tutte

After a prolonged rough patch, New York City Opera’s viability is hanging by a thread—and that thread might just be director Christopher Alden’s new staging of Così fan tutte. After his brash, violent and utterly refreshing production of Don Giovanni in 2009 and last season’s vibrant rendition of Bernstein’s A Quiet Place, this production—the second part of what is intended to be a complete Mozart-da Ponte trilogy—emerges as one of the most anticipated opera events of the year. Alden drops a promising young cast into an ominous Garden of Eden where, as night falls, eroticism and danger replace youthful insouciance. Early-music specialist Christian Curnyn conducts.