Così fan tutte is the third operatic collaboration between Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. While it has a long history of complaints due to the plot’s sexual politics at the expense of the women, this excellent Opera Queensland production plays for comedy and, with that, succeeds very well. It is buoyant and sparkles like a bottle of Prosecco.

This production has transferred well to the intimacy of Her Majesty’s Theatre. It is a modern production for modern times, with a set by Elizabeth Gadsby reflecting not only 18th-century Italian landscapes but also the diaphanous curtains associated with Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, while her costumes wouldn’t be out of place in Naples or on the Amalfi Coast.

In playing down the sexism so often associated with this opera’s female characters, Jessica Dean’s character also wears the trousers (both literally and symbolically) and proves as assertively devious as the Machiavellian Don Alfonso. She also plays for great laughs as the masked ‘doctor’, complete with defibrillator to revive the disguised males, Ferrando and Guglielmo, for the sisters, Fiordiligi and Dorabella.

Cosi serves as an excellent introduction to SOSA’s new musical director and conductor, Dane Lam.