About the Production
Don Alfonso explains to Guglielmo and Ferrando that it is quite possible that their fiancés Dorabella and Fiordiligi could be unfaithful - as all women are.
A bet is made and Don Alfonso hires Despina, Fiordiligi and Dorabella's employee, to help with the intrigue. In disguise, the men finally succeed in seducing each other's fiancée. After Don Alfonso and Despina have broken up the intrigue, it is left to the four young lovers to deal with the consequences of the story.
Così fan
tutte
Storyline
His Dorabella? Ferrando is outraged. She would never cheat on him! But his Fiordiligi, Guglielmo hastens to interject, certainly not him. The two friends agree: the »old philosopher's« assertion that there are no faithful women is inappropriate here.
Finally, a bet is made: The two women are to be put to a test of fidelity. If they allow themselves to be seduced, Don Alfonso wins a hundred zechins; if they remain faithful, the prize goes to Ferrando and Guglielmo. The starting signal for the famous game of disguise and seduction in the last collaboration between Lorenzo Da Ponte and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: the two friends pretend to go to war and return in disguise to offer themselves to the women as lovers. Partly on purpose. To break their resistance, Don Alfonso works with the chambermaid Despina, who not only tries to shake the women's morale, but also slips into various disguises herself to help the cause. The seduction succeeds in parts, even in a new combination of couples, and in the end Fiordiligi and Dorabella are even prepared to marry the two »new suitors«. When the charade is resolved, the »old philosopher« triumphs, and in the final chorus everyone vows to be guided by reason in the ups and downs of life.
Fiordiligi and Dorabella sing the praises of their beloved and look forward to the wedding soon. Don Alfonso confronts the sisters with terrible news: Guglielmo and Ferrando have been ordered to the battlefield and must leave immediately. They are already arriving to say their farewells. While the women are heartbroken, Don Alfonso is secretly pleased at how well the men are carrying out his plan. Ferrando and Guglielmo depart to the sound of military music, leaving the women behind in despair.
While Despina prepares breakfast for Fiordiligi and Dorabella, she swears about her working life. When the sisters tell her about their lovers' departure, threatening suicide, Despina laughs at them. The two would return - and if not, there would be plenty of other men. In any case, now is the time to have fun. All men, she explains to the shocked sisters, are unfaithful. So it was only fair to pay them back in kind.
Don Alfonso hires Despina as an accomplice. He asks her for help in setting Fiordiligi and Dorabella up with two men. For the right price, Despina is prepared to help him. Don Alfonso introduces the gentlemen in question to Despina as his best friends. They are Ferrando and Guglielmo, who have disguised themselves. Dorabella and Fiordiligi are furious at the intrusion of strange men into their home. The men declare themselves madly in love with the two women and beg to be heard. Don Alfonso asks for some kindness for his friends. Dorabella and Fiordiligi angrily reject their advances. Guglielmo and Ferrando are delighted by their fiancée's dismissive attitude and see themselves as the winners of the bet. Don Alfonso urges patience: the agreed period has not yet expired.
Don Alfonso cannot believe that he is dealing with two steadfast women. Despina declares the grieving lovers to be mad: after all, love is for pleasure. She wants to make sure that the intrigue picks up speed.
The disguised Guglielmo and Ferrando declare that they want to end their lives because the cruel women will not listen to them. They pretend to take poison and collapse in front of Dorabella and Fiordiligi. Shaken, the women call for help. Don Alfonso has fetched a doctor. It is Despina in disguise. Using unconventional methods, she "cures" the two men in no time at all. Fiordiligi and Dora- bella are now less reluctant until the men become pushy. Doctor Despina explains this behavior with the after-effects of the poison. But the women have no understanding.
Barrie Kosky's production of Così fan tutte transports the audience to the theater within the theater, where Don Alfonso and his four young actors stage a love experiment. The four are talented: by the second act at the latest, it is no longer possible to tell what is real and what is acted, what is staged and what is escalated.
Barrie Kosky: "I asked myself: what would be a setting in which you can play with what is real emotion and what is acted emotion; what does taking on a role, a costume or an attitude to love mean? In what kind of space can you start and stop the emotion on command, enter it, exit it and even comment on it? What kind of world would that be? At some point I realized: it's the rehearsal room."
Mozart created the work's signature melody from the line "Così fan tutte". Sung only towards the end of the second act, it can be heard in the overture from the eighth bar. After the flattering oboe solo, the famous "begging cadenza" virtually sneaks away: three thirds down, a wistful delay to A minor in the piano, a pause as if for reflection. Mozart's composition of the masque of emotions that characterizes the work is remarkable: does the quiet melancholy of the terzettino "Soave sia il vento" in the first act not capture the general intriguer Don Alfonso to the same extent as the two women who believe their husbands on the battlefield? Doesn't Ferrando's affection for Fiordiligi in their duet in the second act sound just as "real" as his despair in the cavatina "Tradito, schernito" just before it? Mozart's mastery as a dramatic composer reaches a subtle climax here.
Lorenzo Da Ponte had originally written the libretto for Antonio Salieri, entitled La scuola degli amanti, today's subtitle. It is not known why Salieri abandoned the setting after a few attempts (which have survived in fragments). What is known, but cannot be proven, is the assumption that Mozart in particular wanted to avoid confusion between the new opera and Salieri's popular dramma giocoso La scuola de' gelosi(The School of the Jealous, premiered in Venice in 1778) and therefore suggested Così fan tutte as the title.
