craigdailypress.com

With the help of a local theater group, a comedic opera set in late 1700s Naples, Italy, will undergo a modern twist next month.

Emerald City Opera, a Steamboat Springs-based group, is scheduled to present "Cosi fan tutte," an opera composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at 3 p.m. Aug. 8 at Moffat County High School. Tickets cost $10 per person with a $5 discount for students and seniors.

Tickets will be available Wednesday at the Colorado Northwestern Community College bookstore.

Directly translated from Italian, the title reads "All of them make as such," said Valerie Davia, Emerald City Opera's Opera Artist Institute coordinator.

Davia said the piece commonly goes by another, more direct translation: "Women are like that."

"The story is about two couples and : the shenanigans that happen around jealousy," she said.

According to a summary on the Emerald City Opera's Web site, the opera is based on an aging bachelor's attempt to convince two young men that their love interests, like all women, are capricious.

"It's about the relationship between the sexes," said Mary Karen Solomon, CNCC humanities teacher.

In the opera, two young men leave their sweethearts and return to them in disguise, Solomon said, adding that the men's objective is to "seduce their respective girlfriends."

Traditionally, the opera is set in Naples, Italy, during the late 1700s, according to the Emerald City Opera's Web site.

However, Emerald City Opera chose to take the piece in a different direction, choosing contemporary Colorado for the play's setting.

Cast members also will sing in English, Davia said, putting the Mozartean musical piece one step closer to audience members.

CNCC students helped make the performance possible by donating about $500 to bring the opera to Craig, Solomon said.