Opening Saturday 9/24

Mozart's "Così fan tutte" ("All Women Are Like That") may not be the best starter opera, or the best curtain-raiser for the Minnesota Opera's new season. Its highly artificial plot, full of implausible disguises, is open to charges of misogyny; even 21st-century sensibilities can be rattled by its weave of frivolity and cynicism. But Mozart's music sweeps all before it -- or tries to. Peter Rothstein, best known as artistic director of Theater Latté Da, directs his first mainstage opera; Christopher Franklin conducts.