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Authors: Rupert Christiansen
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audiences were shocked at what they saw as Così’s cynicism, and the libretto was frequently rewritten, usually so as to suggest that Fiordiligi and Dorabella were simply pretending to fall for Alfonso’s ruse.Thisembarrassment prevented the sheer sensual beauty of the score from being fully appreciated, and only since the 1960s, with the opening-up of the debate about sexual behaviour and the morality which attempts to govern it has the opera assumed its rightful place in the standard repertory.
Plot
Fashionable Naples, in the late eighteenth century.The cynical Don Alfonso is weary of hearing his young officer friends Ferrando and Guglielmo extolling the virtues of their lovers, the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella.Alfonso strikes a wager with Ferrando and Guglielmo, aimed at testing the strength of the ladies’ feelings.Ferrando and Guglielmo are to pretend that they have been called to the wars.The ladies bid them a sad goodbye and sink into a state of romantic agitation.Ferrando and Guglielmo then secretly return at once, disguised as two visiting Albanians.Without explaining who the Albanians really are, Alfonso enlists the help of the ladies’ maid Despina in the scheme.
At first, Fiordiligi and Dorabella profess themselves heartbroken and shun the Albanians’ extravagant amorous attentions.Then the Albanians pretend to collapse in front of them, claiming that such is their despair that they have swallowed poison.They are revived by Despina, masquerading as a doctor.The ladies are so relieved by the miraculous recovery that their antipathy begins to wane and, egged on by Despina, they decide to indulge in what they think is only an innocent flirtation with their new admirers.But things swiftly become more serious, as real feelings begin to emerge.Dorabella, the more relaxed of the two sisters, exchanges lockets with Fiordiligi’s amour, Guglielmo; Fiordiligi holds out a little longer, resolving to don male clothing and follow Guglielmo to the wars.But when Ferrando appears and perhaps sincerely begs her not to go, she too succumbs.Alfonso meets up with the disillusioned Guglielmo and Ferrando, and advises them not to take the ladies’ change of heart too hard: all women do the same, così fan tutte.
The sisters agree to marry the Albanians, and after Despina, now masquerading as a notary, draws up the contract, the wedding feast begins.Don Alfonso then announces that Ferrando and Guglielmo have unexpectedly returned home from the wars.The Albanians vanish, and Ferrando and Guglielmo re-emerge, feigning shock at the sight of the wedding contract and vowing to kill the Albanians.The ladies are mortified – at which point, Alfonso reveals the entire intrigue.He has won his wager.It is not clear whether the ladies return to their original partners or remain with their Albanian incarnations, but all join to point the moral: happy is the man who is guided by reason through the trials of life.
What to listen for
It is interesting to note that Mozart indicated that all the female roles in Così (as well as in Le Nozze di Figaro and La Clemenza di Tito ) should be sung by a soprano.But what is important in performance is that the three women characters blend and contrast in timbre, so the most common solution is to assign Fiordiligi to a full lyric soprano, Despina to a light soubrette and Dorabella to a mezzo-soprano – even though Fiordiligi occasionally descends lower than her sister and Despina sings below her in the ensembles!So Dorabella may also be sung by a soprano, Despina by a mezzo.Cecilia Bartoli, who refuses to categorize herself as either a mezzo-soprano or a soprano, has at different times successfully sung all three roles.
Così is a long opera, and Ferrando’s high-lying Act II aria, ‘Ah, lo veggio’, is usually cut, much to the relief of most of the tenors who sing the role.Fiordiligi’s two arias are markedly different in mood and style – the first, ‘Come scoglio’, is a parody of
Plot
Fashionable Naples, in the late eighteenth century.The cynical Don Alfonso is weary of hearing his young officer friends Ferrando and Guglielmo extolling the virtues of their lovers, the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella.Alfonso strikes a wager with Ferrando and Guglielmo, aimed at testing the strength of the ladies’ feelings.Ferrando and Guglielmo are to pretend that they have been called to the wars.The ladies bid them a sad goodbye and sink into a state of romantic agitation.Ferrando and Guglielmo then secretly return at once, disguised as two visiting Albanians.Without explaining who the Albanians really are, Alfonso enlists the help of the ladies’ maid Despina in the scheme.
At first, Fiordiligi and Dorabella profess themselves heartbroken and shun the Albanians’ extravagant amorous attentions.Then the Albanians pretend to collapse in front of them, claiming that such is their despair that they have swallowed poison.They are revived by Despina, masquerading as a doctor.The ladies are so relieved by the miraculous recovery that their antipathy begins to wane and, egged on by Despina, they decide to indulge in what they think is only an innocent flirtation with their new admirers.But things swiftly become more serious, as real feelings begin to emerge.Dorabella, the more relaxed of the two sisters, exchanges lockets with Fiordiligi’s amour, Guglielmo; Fiordiligi holds out a little longer, resolving to don male clothing and follow Guglielmo to the wars.But when Ferrando appears and perhaps sincerely begs her not to go, she too succumbs.Alfonso meets up with the disillusioned Guglielmo and Ferrando, and advises them not to take the ladies’ change of heart too hard: all women do the same, così fan tutte.
The sisters agree to marry the Albanians, and after Despina, now masquerading as a notary, draws up the contract, the wedding feast begins.Don Alfonso then announces that Ferrando and Guglielmo have unexpectedly returned home from the wars.The Albanians vanish, and Ferrando and Guglielmo re-emerge, feigning shock at the sight of the wedding contract and vowing to kill the Albanians.The ladies are mortified – at which point, Alfonso reveals the entire intrigue.He has won his wager.It is not clear whether the ladies return to their original partners or remain with their Albanian incarnations, but all join to point the moral: happy is the man who is guided by reason through the trials of life.
What to listen for
It is interesting to note that Mozart indicated that all the female roles in Così (as well as in Le Nozze di Figaro and La Clemenza di Tito ) should be sung by a soprano.But what is important in performance is that the three women characters blend and contrast in timbre, so the most common solution is to assign Fiordiligi to a full lyric soprano, Despina to a light soubrette and Dorabella to a mezzo-soprano – even though Fiordiligi occasionally descends lower than her sister and Despina sings below her in the ensembles!So Dorabella may also be sung by a soprano, Despina by a mezzo.Cecilia Bartoli, who refuses to categorize herself as either a mezzo-soprano or a soprano, has at different times successfully sung all three roles.
Così is a long opera, and Ferrando’s high-lying Act II aria, ‘Ah, lo veggio’, is usually cut, much to the relief of most of the tenors who sing the role.Fiordiligi’s two arias are markedly different in mood and style – the first, ‘Come scoglio’, is a parody of
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