Così fan tutte
Women are like that or The School for Lovers / Dramma giocoso in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Marguerre-Saal
[recommended for ages 15 and up]
Loyalty or short-lived desire, stability or passion – what is the value of love? As they can’t agree on this question, Alfonso proposes a bet to his younger friends Guglielmo and Ferrando. Both officers believe in their financées’ (Fiordiligi and Dorabella) loyalty, Alfonso wants to prove them wrong. Ferrando and Guglielmo pretend to have been drafted and then come back in disguise to seduce the other’s girl and test their honesty. But can you bet on feelings? What starts out as a game, very quickly takes a dangerous turn.
»Così fan tutte« was created in 1790 as the final opera of Mozart’s Da Ponte trilogy. Yet again, the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart use irony to uncover the double standards of love and partnership, though not without taking a nuanced look at their characters’ subjective feelings, the depths of which Mozart’s music in particular knows how to fathom.