Love. Deceit. Disguise. Everything but death.

That last element, it’s said, is what distinguishes tragedy from comedy. Nobody dies in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Così fan tutte,” so it must be a comedy. (Also: it’s funny.)

Ferrando loves Dorabella. Guglielmo loves Fiordiligi. They both love to wager, so they bet with Don Alfonso that their intended brides will remain faithful even while they’re off to war. The deceptions that follow, as the men pose as suitors to prove their lovers’ fidelity, round out the two-act bedchamber farce. Performers of Seattle Opera’s Young Artists program interpret this antic tale, scripted by Mozart’s frequent collaborator Lorenzo Da Ponte, at Leavenworth’s Sleeping Lady Chapel Theater on Sunday.

First staged in 1790, the story went through a series of bowdlerizations in the 19th century, removing some mischief that offended sensibilities. The Young Artists production uses the edition that’s most faithful to Da Ponte’s original book. The full title “Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti” essentially translates to “Thus Do All Women, or The School For Lovers.”

“But the thrust of the drama is that everyone is like that — given half a chance, people will give their attentions, give their affection, respond to the attentions of others, and it’s a two-way street, both for men and for women,” says Benjamin Wayne Smith, who directs the Young Artists tour production. “I think Mozart is really saying, ‘This is human nature.’ ... I think time has proved it to be forward-thinking, almost feminist in some ways.”

Go! Magazine: Why do you think so much great drama or comedy starts with a wager?

Benjamin Wayne Smith: Because it’s something that we can all relate to, whether we are modern people watching people in modern clothes or watching people 250 years ago. We also know that when someone says, “Put your money where your mouth is,” the juiciness of that challenge and the instinct to step up to the plate is a great spark for a dramatic situation. And it frames it really clearly as well — “I’m on this side, you’re on that side, now we’re going to go out and test this.” ... That makes it sort of neat and understandable in a way.

Go!: You’re doing this in the original Italian with supertitles. Is it a preference of opera directors to have the libretto in the original language?

Smith: In a way, it depends on the integrity of the libretto in the first place. In this case, we’re dealing with Da Ponte, and it’s a real meeting of two great dramatists. I was also recently doing some research into a production of “The Magic Flute,” which is arguably a lesser libretto and includes a whole bunch of spoken dialogue. So a lot of times, in this country, it gets done in English, because sitting and listening to a lot of German dialogue doesn’t really serve anybody. For this piece, Mozart wrote so specifically for the language he was given, so it is done in this country in Italian. Both pedagogically and artistically, it was the clear choice.

Go!: Does the production travel with much in the way of props or scenery or costuming?

Smith: I designed the production with certain parameters, in terms of what could go into the back of a van. In “Così fan tutte,” there are several locales that need to be served, and they’re created in our case mainly by the way that the actors treat the space. We have a few elements, a few black and white cubes and a trunk, and those are positioned around the space in different configurations to demark inside, outside, private space, the space of the women, the men’s space. ... It’s my intent that it was a lean, efficient, storytelling-centric production.

Go!: Is this opera the best of Mozart, to your mind?

Smith: When I started working on this piece, I really didn’t understand it, and I thought I didn’t like it. For me, at the beginning, it was a strange crossroads of really fantastic, bottomless music and a libretto that seemed frivolous and almost not worthy of the music that it was serving. The more that I lived with it, and certainly in the directing of it, I’ve really come to be delighted by the piece. Every time I come into rehearsal now, it makes me sort of giddy. ... It is probably after “Figaro” and “Don Giovanni” as my favorite Mozart, but again, those are all Da Ponte. “Così” is the third of the three for me.

Go!: What does an opera singer need to have, aside from a great voice?

Smith: A willingness to try new things. An interest in being a good colleague and playing well with others. A certain playful spirit that will allow them to come into a rehearsal situation and do something that maybe makes them feel foolish, or look foolish, as a means of getting to a true moment. A lot of singers have a lot of vocal training, musical training, and sometimes limited acting training or experience. It’s always a discovery to find out what your cast is going to be willing to try.