Federica Lombardi and Samantha Hankey Anchor Met's Così Revival

Soprano Federica Lombardi and mezzo-soprano Samantha Hankey carried the Metropolitan Opera's 2026-27 revival of Mozart's "Così fan tutte," delivering an Act one duet, "Ah! guarda sorella," that this review calls breathtaking. Phelim McDermott's production, set against a 1950s Coney Island boardwalk, returned to the Met under conductor Nimrod David Pfeffer, whose attention to musical detail the review singles out as excellent.

The revival preserves the staging OperaWire first reviewed in 2020, when it premiered with the company. This season's assessment focuses on the musical and vocal performances led by Pfeffer.

A Score With Nowhere to Hide

"Così fan tutte" drew pushback in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Goethe wrote of his personal distaste for the work; Beethoven composed his "Fidelio" in response. The two-act comic opera, with Da Ponte's libretto documenting the tit-for-tat unraveling of two young couples, leaves performers nowhere to hide — Mozart's composition mirrors only the surface, which the review identifies as the opera's "secret weapon."

The first eight bars of the Overture, the opening trio for Ferrando, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso, and the duet for Fiordiligi and Dorabella set the standard for the entire evening. "At whatever level of standard the opera begins, it surely will end," the review notes.

The review frames the work as unforgiving for performers: "There is no one left behind in this opera either — everyone must be totally in, totally together and totally delusional enough to pull it off."

The Women

Lombardi's Fiordiligi reached what the review describes as "another plane of vocal exquisiteness, even for her." Her rich vowels and unobstructed timbre left listeners "stunned and wanting more." Her "Come scoglio immoto resta" showcased the full span of her instrument, with chest-voice depths and falsetto heights the review calls "absolutely thrilling to experience live."

Hankey matched her. Her warm, intricately complex mezzo grounded Lombardi's brighter tone, and she made Dorabella "a litmus test of vocal technique." In "Ah! scostati" and "Smanie implacabili che m'agitate," Hankey interwove emotions without, in the review's words, "getting stuck in their energetic wastefulness or giving away too much."

Soprano Ana María Martínez seized control as Despina with "Una donna a quindici anni." Her tight spinning vibrato on "Che innamorano gli amanti, Finger riso, finger pianti" sent the phrase soaring into the Met's hall, and her vocal agility, combined with the role's physicality and fast tempos, proved unmatched.

The Men

Tenor Duke Kim as Ferrando, baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky as Guglielmo and bass-baritone Gerald Finley as Don Alfonso formed what the review calls "a trifecta of derided masculinity." Their opening trio, "La mia Dorabella," immediately established each character through timbre alone: Kim's naiveté, Zhilikhovsky's sleaziness, Finley's narcissistic theorizing.

Finley drew the review's sharpest praise. His intelligent performance stripped the opera's blatant chauvinism and turned Don Alfonso into an instrument of dark comic relief — a mark, the review notes, that professional comics spend careers chasing, while "Finley just gets it and gives it." His "Vorrei dir e cor non ho" drew laughs, and his contribution to the trio "Soave sia il vento" alongside Lombardi and Hankey, in "divine union," ranked as the evening's most unassuming highlight.

Zhilikhovsky's "Non siate ritrosi" illuminated Mozart's digestible comic writing, while Kim's "Un'aura amorosa," with masterful intonation and excellent pianissimo, marked another high point.

McDermott's Coney Island Machine

The review credits McDermott's revival with "quick wittedness" in its set's mechanical and symbolic nature. The rotating doors and fast-paced physical business mirrored characters stuck in their scenes as in their ways. The ferris wheel earned the reviewer's favorite-object nod, along with a large albino boa constrictor that popped in and out of scenes — "opera snake anyone? Genius."

Crucially, music and libretto remained the production's sole focus; McDermott amplified rather than overwhelmed the imaginative frame.

With Pfeffer's detail work in the pit and a cast the review calls stellar, the Met played this revival smart — a reminder that Mozart's most precarious comedy still rewards the houses and singers willing to risk everything on its transparency.