Mozart Meets AI: Detroit Opera House's Latest Production Takes a Leap into the Future - Major Digest

Mozart Meets AI: A Mind-Bending Production at the Detroit Opera House

The curtains are set to rise on a performance of "Cosi fan tutte" at the Detroit Opera House, but audiences expecting a traditional overture may be in for a surprise. Instead of classical music, they'll hear the sound of a product launch from a tech company CEO. It's Mozart meets Artificial Intelligence, in the latest mind-bending production by Yuval Sharon. Sharon, the artistic director, has taken the opera's uneasy mix of light-hearted farce and cynical worldview and turned it on its head. He believes that the collaborators behind "Cosi fan tutte" were representing a character and perspective that might not be meant to be sympathized with. In the original production, Don Alfonso, a jaded philosopher, bets two young friends that their girlfriends will prove unfaithful. The men switch identities and pursue their friend's sweethearts, eventually leading both women to succumb.

Don Alfonso as AI Entrepreneur

In Sharon's production, Don Alfonso becomes the head of an AI company called SoulSync. Under his guidance, the younger men have created two female automatons designed to be "perfect companions." This concept may sound far-fetched, but Sharon insists it's not so different from the truth. "He's actually a replica of what we see in the tech industry," Sharon said. "There's a messianic belief that we must transcend our own humanity and that AI is making up for all the terrible ways we behave." People really do believe that the future of humanity is robotic, he added.

Sharon's Vision: A 21st-Century Take on a Classic

Thomas Lehman, a baritone singing one of the lovers' roles, Guglielmo, thinks Sharon has taken the story and turned it upside down in the right ways. The original libretto leans heavily toward the men, but Sharon has found a way to give the women the power they deserve. Emily Fons, who portrays Dorabella for the third time, sees the updating as part of a broader movement to take old pieces and make them new again. "We're all programmed to some extent," she said. What speaks to her is how the automatons learn to feel things and take those feelings to have a say in what happens next.

The Magnet: A Clue to Humanity's True Nature

The notion of humans as machines is embedded in the opera as Mozart and Da Ponte wrote it – something Sharon first realized while attending a traditional performance. The medical treatment advanced by Franz Mesmer, an 18th-century German physician, involved using a magnet to realign metals within the human body. In Act I's finale, Despina poses as a physician and uses a magnet to "cure" the two suitors who have pretended to swallow poison. This has led Sharon to ponder what it means for humans to be machines in the first place.

A Production that Raises Questions

The production raises serious questions about the use of AI, but Sharon has made sure to keep the tone light. He's built in twists and turns to take the audience by surprise, including an intentionally withheld synopsis for Act II to avoid spoilers. As the curtains rise on this latest production, audiences are in for a thought-provoking experience that combines Mozart's sublime music with AI technology, raising questions about humanity and consciousness in a 21st-century context.