Dramma giacoso
First performed Vienna, January 1790

‘Così fan tutte is the best of all Da Ponte’s librettos and the most exquisite work of art among Mozart’s operas’ (Edward J. Dent, Mozart’s operas, Oxford University Press, 1947).

Mozart’s Così is heaven on earth. Let it be said for all time. Though its narrative is strong and full of dolce penar, Così is rather the embodiment and expression of an idea rather than the telling of a story, unlike Mozart’s other two great preceding Italian operas, Figaro and Don Giovanni.

Così’s narrative takes the form of a ‘scientific’ experiment performed by human beings on human beings. This causes as much pleasure as pain, so that Così is also the quintessence of opera buffa, of which Mozart and da Ponte were the great masters.

Don Alfonso, a bachelor, seeks to warn his younger friends, Guglielmo and Ferrando, about the wiles and flightiness of all women, using their girl-friends, the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, as practical examples.

With the help of their maid, Despina, and the men’s agreement, Alfonso succeeds in disguising his young friends in order to seduce the girls. Such is his experiment to prove that women are no less susceptible than men where romance is concerned.

The experiment nearly gets out of hand when the competing emotions of the men come into play, and Ferrando’s almost unbearable seduction of Fiordiligi, the more profound of the two sisters, goes beyond comedy.

The end of the opera is distinctly uncomfortable, with everybody – even Despina – feeling remorse about a game which has gone too far and revealed a little too much of the truth.

‘This opera is iridescent, like a glorious soap-bubble, with the colours of buffoonery, parody, and both genuine and simulated emotion … Anyone who has ears to hear will not fail to realize Mozart’s personal sympathy with his creatures even in this most buffa of all his opere buffe’ (Alfred Einstein, Mozart, his character, his work, Cassell, 1946).

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There are many wonderful recordings of Così. The first, Glyndebourne 1935, conducted by Fritz Busch, directed by Carl Ebert, is perfectly proportioned and as fresh as any modern recording.