Così fan tutte

Fiordiligi loves Guilelmo and Dorabella loves Ferrando. At the moment. To find out how lasting love is, the cynical Don Alfonso proposes a bet to Guilelmo and Ferrando. They are to lead their fiancées to believe that they have to go to war, and they will then each return secretly in disguise and pay court to the other's lady. The two lovers are confident – "That will never work!", and agree without hesitation. But the experiment has barely started before all too human cracks start to appear in the safe world of the couples, and Alfonso and Despina, the maid, only have to work subtly in the background to bring the plain truth about the actual essence of love to the light of day…

"Happy is the man who sees only the best side of everything and who stays calm despite the vicissitudes of life, about which he laughs!" This is the final message of the dramma giocoso "Così fan tutte", proclaimed by the six protagonists and placed on their lips by librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. The fast-paced, intimate drama about love and loyalty, the full title of which is "Così fan tutte ossia La scuola degli amanti" ("They're all the same, or The School for Lovers"), marks the glorious finale to the collaboration between the brilliant librettist da Ponte and the brilliant composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This was an explosive topic for a first performance at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1790, demonstrating, in the era of the French Revolution, that not only political orders but also basic pillars of society such as marriage are not invulnerable. It is barely conceivable that the Emperor Josef II is said to have initiated this opera project personally, which is unparalleled even today in terms of its radical plot and the beauty of its music. Director Olivier Tambosi, who has already created a furore with his productions at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and New York's Metropolitan Opera, gives us his view of one of the most sophisticated and ambiguous operas in musical history!

Programmheft COSÌ FAN TUTTE Leseprobe