Editing Così fan tutte

{{short description|Italian-language opera buffa by W. A. Mozart}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox opera
| name              = {{Lang|it|Così fan tutte}}<br /> <small>{{Lang|it|ossia La scuola degli amanti}}</small>
| composer          = [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|W. A. Mozart]]
| translated_name   = ''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''
| image             = Cosi fan tutte - first performance.jpg
| caption           = Playbill of the first performance
| image_upright     = 1.3
| librettist        = [[Lorenzo Da Ponte]]
| language          = [[Italian Language|Italian]]
| based_on          = 
| premiere_date     = {{Start date|1790|01|26|df=y}}
| premiere_location = [[Burgtheater#History|Burgtheater]], Vienna
}}

'''{{Lang|it|Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti}}'''{{efn|{{IPA|it|koˈzi ffan ˈtutte osˈsiːa la ˈskwɔːla deʎʎ aˈmanti, koˈsi -}}<ref>[http://www.dipionline.it/dizionario/ricerca?lemma=cos%C3%AD "cosí"], ''{{ill|Dizionario di pronuncia italiana|it}} online''</ref>}} (''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''), [[Köchel catalogue|K.]] 588, is an [[opera buffa]] in two acts by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the [[Burgtheater]] in Vienna, Austria. The [[libretto]] was written by [[Lorenzo Da Ponte]] who also wrote ''[[The Marriage of Figaro|Le nozze di Figaro]]'' and ''[[Don Giovanni]]''.

Although it is commonly held that {{Lang|it|Così fan tutte}} was written and composed at the suggestion of the [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Joseph II]], recent research does not support this idea.{{sfn|Brown|1995|p=10}}{{sfn|Brown|Rice|1996}} There is evidence that Mozart's contemporary [[Antonio Salieri]] tried to set the libretto but left it unfinished. In 1994, [[John A. Rice (musicologist)|John Rice]] uncovered two [[String trio|terzetti]] by Salieri in the [[Austrian National Library]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Collins|first=Michael B.|title=Review: ''Così fan tutte'' by Bruce Alan Brown|journal=[[Notes (journal)|Notes]]|series=Second Series|volume=53|number=4|date=June 1997|pages=1142–1144|jstor=899460|doi=10.2307/899460}}</ref>

The short title, ''Così fan tutte'', literally means "So do they all", using the feminine plural (''[[wikt:tutte#Italian|tutte]]'') to indicate women. It is usually translated into English as "Women are like that". The words are sung by the three men in act 2, scene 3, just before the finale; this melodic phrase is also quoted in the overture to the opera. Da Ponte had used the line "Così fan tutte le belle" earlier in ''Le nozze di Figaro'' (in act 1, scene 7).

==Performance history==
The first performance of Mozart's setting took place at the [[Burgtheater]] in Vienna on 26 January 1790. It was given only five times before the run was stopped by the death of the Emperor Joseph II and the resulting period of court mourning. It was performed twice in June 1790 with the composer conducting the second performance, and again in July (twice) and August (once). After that it was not performed in Vienna during Mozart's lifetime.<ref>[[Peter Branscombe]]. "Historical Note", Royal Opera House programme, 4 November 1976</ref> The first British performance was in May 1811 at the King's Theatre, London.<ref name=holden>{{harvnb|Holden|1997|p=253}}</ref><ref>"King's Theatre", ''[[The Times]]'', 7 May 1811, p. 4</ref> ''Così fan tutte'' was not performed in the United States until 1922, when it was given at the [[Metropolitan Opera]].<ref name=holden />

According to [[William Mann (critic)|William Mann]],{{sfn|Mann|1986|p=542}} Mozart disliked prima donna [[Adriana Ferrarese del Bene]], da Ponte's arrogant mistress for whom the role of Fiordiligi had been created. Knowing her idiosyncratic tendency to drop her chin on low notes and throw back her head on high ones, Mozart filled her showpiece aria "Come scoglio" with constant leaps from low to high and high to low in order to make Ferrarese's head "bob like a chicken" onstage.<ref>As quoted by [[Robert Greenberg]], ''Great Masters – Mozart: His Life and Work'', Lecture 8: "The Last Years" (Chantilly, Virginia: The Great Courses, 2000)</ref>

The subject matter (see synopsis below) did not offend Viennese sensibilities of the time, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries was considered risqué, vulgar, and even immoral. The opera was rarely performed, and when it did appear it was presented in one of several [[Thomas Bowdler|bowdlerised]] versions.

After World War II it regained a place in the standard operatic repertoire and is now frequently performed.<ref>{{cite web
| title= Opera Statistics
| url= http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en#opera
| website= Operabase
| access-date= 16 March 2018
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110917120110/http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en#opera
| archive-date= 17 September 2011
| url-status= dead
}}</ref>

A comedic adaptation, ''[[Covid fan tutte]]'', (also using other music by Mozart) depicting life during the first several months of the [[COVID-19 pandemic]] was produced by the [[Finnish National Opera]] in 2020.

==Roles==
{| class="wikitable"
|+{{sronly|Roles, voice types, premiere cast}}
!Role
![[Voice type]]<ref name=NMA2>''NMA'' score, [https://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/scan.php?vsep=306&l=1&p1=1#p2 p. 2]</ref>
!Premiere cast, 26 January 1790<br />Conductor: W. A. Mozart
|-
| Fiordiligi, ''lady from Ferrara and sister to Dorabella, living in Naples''
|[[soprano]]
|[[Adriana Ferrarese del Bene|Adriana Ferrarese]]
|-
| Dorabella, ''lady from Ferrara and sister to Fiordiligi, living in Naples''
|soprano<!-- See reference provided at "Voice type" and the paragraph just below. -->
|{{ill|Louise Villeneuve|fr||lt=Louise (Luisa) Villeneuve}}
|-
|Guglielmo (spelled "Guilelmo" by the librettist), ''lover of Fiordiligi, a soldier''
|[[baritone]]<ref name=operaarias>Opera Arias, [https://www.opera-arias.com/mozart/cosi-fan-tutte/]</ref><ref name=ariadatabase>Aria Database, [https://www.aria-database.com/cgi-bin/aria-search.pl?opera=Cos%EC+fan+tutte&r]</ref>
|[[Francesco Benucci]]
|-
| Ferrando, ''lover of Dorabella, a soldier''
|[[tenor]]
|[[Vincenzo Calvesi]]
|-
| Despina, ''a maid''
|soprano
|{{ill|Dorotea Bussani|it}}
|-
| Don Alfonso, ''an old philosopher''
|bass
|{{ill|Francesco Bussani|it}}
|-
| colspan="3"|''Chorus: soldiers, servants, sailors''
|}

While the use of modern [[fach]] titles and voice categories for these roles has become customary, Mozart was far more general in his own descriptions of the voice types, as shown [[#Roles|above]].<ref name=NMA2 /><ref>{{Cite Grove|author=[[Julian Rushton]]|title=''Così fan tutte'' [''Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti'' (''All Women do the Same, or The School for Lovers'')]|year=2002|id=O003389}}</ref> Occasionally these voice types are varied in performance practice. Don Alfonso is sometimes performed by baritones such as [[Thomas Allen (baritone)|Thomas Allen]], [[Bo Skovhus]], and [[Thomas Hampson]], and Dorabella is almost always performed by a [[mezzo-soprano]]. Despina is occasionally performed by a mezzo-soprano, such as [[Cecilia Bartoli]], [[Frederica von Stade]], [[Agnes Baltsa]], [[Ann Murray]] and [[Ginger Costa-Jackson]]. Ferrando and Fiordiligi, however, can only be sung by a tenor and a soprano because of the high [[tessitura]] of their roles.

==Instrumentation==
The instrumentation is as follows:

* [[Woodwind instrument|Woodwinds]]: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons. Fiordiligi's aria "Per pietà, ben mio, perdona", act 2, contains a rare instance of clarinets in B-natural (key of the aria is E major which transposes to F major for the clarinet part, explaining the use of B{{music|n}} clarinets).<ref>[http://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/nma_cont.php?vsep=306&gen=edition&l=1&p1=400 "Per pietà, ben mio, perdona"], score, ''NMA''</ref> In most modern editions this is made into a part for A clarinets. The ''[[Neue Mozart-Ausgabe|NMA]]'' keeps the notation for the B clarinet. There is evidence that some of the clarinet writing was intended for [[basset clarinet]] due to its low range.
* [[Brass instrument|Brass]]: 2 [[Natural horn|horns]], 2 [[Natural_trumpet|trumpets]].
* Percussion: 2 [[timpani]] – an additional military drum is used on stage.
* [[String section|Strings]]: first violins, second violins, violas, [[cello|violoncellos]], double basses.
* [[Basso continuo]] in [[secco recitative]]s of [[harpsichord]] and [[Cello|violoncello]] (period performance practice often uses a [[fortepiano]] only).

==Synopsis==
Mozart and Da Ponte use the theme of "fiancée swapping", which dates back to the 13th century; notable earlier versions are found in [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]]'s ''[[The Decameron|Decameron]]'' and [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Cymbeline]]''. Elements from Shakespeare's ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' and ''[[The Taming of the Shrew]]'' are also present. Furthermore, it incorporates elements of the myth of [[Procris]] as found in [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', vii.<ref>Synopsis taken from {{ill|Leo Melitz|de}}, ''[https://archive.org/details/operagoerscompl00meligoog The Opera Goer's Complete Guide]'', 1921 version, pp. [https://archive.org/details/operagoerscompl00meligoog/page/n75/mode/2up 55–56].</ref>
:Place: [[Naples]]
:Time: the 18th century

===Act 1===
====Scene 1: A [[coffeehouse]]====
{{listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|filename="Soave Sia Il Vento" from Cosi Fan Tutte - Singing Sergeants - United States Air Force Band.mp3|title="Soave sia il vento"|description=The Singing Sergeants and Concert Band of the [[United States Air Force Band]]}}
In a cafe, Ferrando and Guglielmo (two officers) express certainty that their fiancées (Dorabella and Fiordiligi, respectively) will be eternally faithful. Don Alfonso expresses skepticism and claims that there is no such thing as a faithful woman. He lays a wager with the two officers, claiming he can prove in a day's time that those two, like all women, are fickle. The wager is accepted: the two officers will pretend to have been called off to war; soon thereafter they will return in disguise and each attempt to seduce the other's lover. The scene shifts to the two women, who are praising their men (duet: "Ah guarda sorella"—"Ah look sister"). Alfonso arrives to announce the bad news: the officers have been called off to war. Ferrando and Guglielmo arrive, brokenhearted, and bid farewell (quintet: "Sento, o Dio, che questo piede è restio"—"I feel, oh God, that my foot is reluctant"). As the boat with the men sails off to sea, Alfonso and the sisters wish them safe travel (trio: "Soave sia il vento"—"May the wind be gentle"). Alfonso, left alone, gloatingly predicts that the women (like all women) will prove unfaithful (arioso: "Oh, poverini, per femmina giocare cento zecchini?"—"Oh, poor little ones, to wager 100 [[sequin (coin)|sequins]] on a woman").

====Scene 2: A room in the sisters' home====

Despina, the [[maid]], arrives and asks what is wrong. Dorabella bemoans the torment of having been left alone (aria: "Smanie implacabili"—"Torments implacable"). Despina mocks the sisters, advising them to take new lovers while their betrotheds are away (aria: "In uomini, in soldati, sperare fedeltà?"—"In men, in soldiers, you hope for faithfulness?"). After they leave, Alfonso arrives. He fears Despina will recognize the men through their disguises, so he bribes her into helping him to win the bet. The two men then arrive, dressed as mustachioed Albanians (sextet: "Alla bella Despinetta"—"Meet the pretty Despinetta"). The sisters enter and are alarmed by the presence of strange men in their home. The "Albanians" tell the sisters that they were led by love to them (the sisters). However, the sisters refuse to give in. Fiordiligi asks the "Albanians" to leave and pledges to remain faithful (aria: "Come scoglio"—"Like a rock"). The "Albanians" continue the attempt to win over the sisters' hearts, Guglielmo going so far as to point out all of his manly attributes (aria: "Non siate ritrosi"—"Don't be shy"), but to no avail. Ferrando, left alone and sensing victory, praises his love (aria: "Un'aura amorosa"—"A loving breath").

====Scene 3: A garden====

[[File:Opera in the Heights (6331102724).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Opera in the Heights]] ensemble, 2011]]

The sisters are still pining. Despina has asked Don Alfonso to let her take over the seduction plan. Suddenly, the "Albanians" burst in the scene and threaten to poison themselves if they are not allowed the chance to woo the sisters. As Alfonso tries to calm them, they drink the "poison" and pretend to pass out. Soon thereafter, a "doctor" (Despina in disguise) arrives on the scene and, using [[magnet therapy]], is able to revive the "Albanians". The men, pretending to [[hallucination|hallucinate]], demand a kiss from Dorabella and Fiordiligi (whom the "Albanians" call goddesses) who stand before them. The sisters refuse, even as Alfonso and the doctor (Despina) urge them to acquiesce.

===Act 2===
====Scene 1: The sisters' bedroom====

{{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|filename=Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - cosi fan tutte act ii - no. 19 aria - una donna a quindici anni.ogg|title="Una donna a quindici anni"|description=From [[Musopen]]}}

Despina urges them to succumb to the "Albanians{{'"}} overtures (aria: "Una donna a quindici anni"—"A fifteen year old woman"). After she leaves, Dorabella confesses to Fiordiligi that she is tempted, and the two agree that a mere flirtation will do no harm and will help them pass the time while they wait for their lovers to return (duet: "Prenderò quel brunettino"—"I will take the dark haired one").

====Scene 2: The garden====

Dorabella and the disguised Guglielmo pair off, as do Ferrando and Fiordiligi. The conversation is halting and uncomfortable, and Ferrando departs with Fiordiligi. Now alone with Dorabella, Guglielmo attempts to woo her. She puts up a token resistance, and soon she has given him a medallion (with Ferrando's portrait inside) in exchange for a heart-shaped [[locket]] (duet: "Il core vi dono"—"I give you my heart"). Ferrando is less successful with Fiordiligi (Ferrando's aria: "Ah, lo veggio"—"Ah, I see it" and Fiordiligi's aria: "Per pietà, ben mio, perdona"—"Please, my beloved, forgive"), so he is enraged when he later finds out from Guglielmo that the medallion with his portrait has been so quickly given away to a new lover. Guglielmo at first sympathises with Ferrando (aria: "Donne mie, la fate a tanti"—"My ladies, you do it to so many"), but then gloats, because his betrothed is faithful.

====Scene 3: The sisters' room====

Dorabella admits her indiscretion to Fiordiligi ("È amore un ladroncello"—"Love is a little thief"). Fiordiligi, upset by this development, decides to go to the army and find her betrothed. Before she can leave, though, Ferrando arrives and continues his attempted seduction. Fiordiligi finally succumbs and falls into his arms (duet: "Fra gli amplessi"—"In the embraces"). Guglielmo is distraught while Ferrando turns Guglielmo's earlier gloating back on him. Alfonso, winner of the wager, tells the men to forgive their fiancées. After all: "Così fan tutte"—"All women are like that".

====Scene 4====

The scene begins as a double wedding for the sisters and their "Albanian" grooms. Despina, in disguise as a [[Notary public|notary]], presents the marriage contract, which only the ladies sign. (The men, of course, realise that this wedding is a sham, and are only playing along with it in order to teach their unfaithful lovers a lesson.) Directly thereafter, military music is heard in the distance, indicating the return of the officers. Alfonso confirms the sisters' fears: Ferrando and Guglielmo are on their way to the house. The "Albanians" hurry off to hide (actually, to change out of their disguises). They return as the officers, professing their love. Alfonso drops the marriage contract in front of the officers, and, when they read it, they become enraged. They then depart and return moments later, half in Albanian disguise, half as officers. Despina has been revealed to be the notary, and the sisters realize they have been duped. All is ultimately forgiven, as the entire group praises the ability to accept life's unavoidable good times and bad times.

==Recordings==
{{Main|Così fan tutte discography{{!}}''Così fan tutte'' discography}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Opera}}

* [[List of operas by Mozart]]
* [[Così fan tutte pasticcio Coronation Mass|Coronation Mass in C major (''Così fan tutte'' pasticcio)]], setting of the [[Mass (music)|Mass]] using reworked music from ''Così fan tutte''
* ''[[Così]]'', a 1992 play by [[Louis Nowra]], based on the staging of ''Così fan tutte'' in a psychiatric hospital

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{notelist}}
'''Citations'''
{{reflist}}

'''Sources'''
* {{cite book|last=Brown|first=Bruce Alan|author-link=Bruce Alan Brown|title=W. A. Mozart: Così fan tutte|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0-521-43735-6}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=Bruce Alan|last2=Rice|first2=John A.|author2-link=John A. Rice (musicologist)|title=Salieri's ''Così fan tutte''|journal=Cambridge Opera Journal|volume=8|number=1|date=March 1996|pages=17–43|doi=10.1017/S0954586700002834 |jstor=823700|s2cid=190738885 }} Also [https://www.academia.edu/8377989/Salieris_Cos%C3%AC_fan_tutte_co_author_Bruce_Alan_Brown_ here], [[academia.edu]] {{Registration required}}.
* {{cite book|editor-last=Holden|editor-first=Amanda|editor-link=Amanda Holden (writer)|title=The Penguin Opera Guide|location=London|publisher=Penguin|year=1997|isbn=0-14-051385-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/operaguidepengui00nich}}
* {{cite book|last=Mann|first=William|author-link=William Mann (critic)|title=The Operas of Mozart|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1986}}

'''Further reading'''
* {{cite journal|last= Tyson|first= Alan|author-link=Alan Tyson|title=Notes on the Composition of Mozart's ''Così fan tutte''|journal= [[Journal of the American Musicological Society]]|volume=37|issue=2|pages=356–401|date=Summer 1984|doi= 10.2307/831177|jstor= 831177|ref=none}}
* Whitfield, Sarah (2011), [http://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/vol2/iss2/1 "''Così fan tutte'': Brilliance or Buffoonery?"], ''Musical Offerings'', vol. 2, no. 2, article 1. {{doi|10.15385/jmo.2011.2.2.1}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Così fan tutte}}
* [https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN785201912&PHYSID=PHYS_0005&DMDID=DMDLOG_0001/ "''Così fan tutte'', act 2]: Mozart's autograph manuscript in the [[Berlin State Library]]
* {{NMA|306|1|72|9}}
* [https://dme.mozarteum.at/dmedata/libredition/single.php?idwnma=6757 Libretto], [[critical edition]]s, [[diplomatic edition]]s, source evaluation (German only), links to online DME recordings; Digital Mozart Edition
* {{IMSLP|work=Così fan tutte, K.588 (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus)|cname=''Così fan tutte''}}
* [http://www.opera-guide.ch/opera.php?id=252&uilang=en Complete libretto, scores], opera-guide.ch
* [http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/baf7511/index.html Full score], dlib.indiana.edu
* [https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,815788,00.html "Mozart at the Met"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 7 January 1952
* [https://www.imdb.com/find?q=Cos%C3%AC%20fan%20tutte&s=tt&exact=true ''Così fan tutte''] at the [[IMDb|Internet Movie Database]]
* [https://opera-inside.com/cosi-fan-tutte-by-wolfgang-amadeus-mozart-the-opera-guide/ Opera guide and synopsis], opera-inside.com
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cosfantuttesomac00moza/page/n7/mode/2up|title=Così fan tutte = So machen's Alle : komische Oper in 2 Akten|year=1898|type=[[piano–vocal score]] by [[Hermann Levi]]|translator1=[[Eduard Devrient]]|translator2=C. Niese<!-- Charlotte Niese? -->|language=it,de|location=Leipzig|publisher=Breitkopf & Härtel|id=E.B. 1666|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}

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[[Category:Così fan tutte| ]]
[[Category:Italian-language operas]]
[[Category:Opera buffa]]
[[Category:Operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]
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[[Category:Operas set in Naples]]
[[Category:Libretti by Lorenzo Da Ponte]]