The Opera Company of Philadelphia's current production of Mozart's Così Fan Tutte is an unqualified success. The admirable and tight cast of six includes the two lovesick couples: Ferrando (William Burden, tenor) and Dorabella (Ruxandra Donose, mezzo soprano) and Guglielmo (Nathan Gunn, baritone) and Fiordiligi (Mary Dunleavy, soprano); the aging cynic, Don Alfonso (David Pittsinger, bass); and the chambermaid, Despina (Latonia Moore, soprano).

The spare sets show off the well-choreographed fun and games to great effect. The OCP orchestra, conducted by Maurizio Barbacini, plays alertly, with rhythmic bounce. This extraordinary music shows Mozart at the top of his form -- it was composed in 1790, the year before his death, just before The Magic Flute and the incomplete Requiem. Along with Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro, it is the last of the three great Italian operas Mozart composed to librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte. While the opera has its buffa (buffoonish) side, it also asks serious questions about sex and love. Well into the 20th century there were still those who found the content scandalously suggestive, and sanitized versions were often used until after World War II.

Our bosomy lower-class servant girl Despina, who might have dropped in from an MTV video, presents the views that must have caused such a stir: "So your soldier boyfriends have been called up and are going off to war? Well, I'm sure they are enjoying themselves with new girlfriends, so why not make hay," etc. For a coin down her cleavage, she joins the cynical old Don Alfonso in a bet made against the two sappy young soldiers that Fiordiligi and Dorabella will prove unfaithful.

The women's sniffy hysteria when the boys go off to war is really comical -- or might be at other times than these ("Close all the curtains/ I want to die/ Give me some poison"). The boys return disguised as Albanians (!) and in Act II successfully woo each other's beloved. Has Don Alfonso won the bet? Not quite. Just about to sign the marriage contract with the Albanians, the girls hear the troops returning home -- all is revealed, the guys are reunited with the right girls, and all have learned to treat love more realistically.

The music is overwhelming. Ferrando's Act I aria, "Un' aura amorosa," will make you believe in love unless you are dead, and even then In Act II, Fiordiligi's great aria, "Per pietà," anticipates Beethoven, and convinces us that love can triumph. Alfred Einstein points out that the negative philosophy of love is mainly in the talking parts (the recitative), whereas the arias often embody a belief in sincere love. This divides the audience -- which side are you on: Youth and Love or Age and Experience? Go see it and decide.

Through March 23, Opera Company of Philadelphia at The Academy of Music, Broad and Locust sts., 215-893-1999