Cosi Fan Tutte is the name of an opera in two acts by the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (see Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus ). Its libretto (text), in Italian, is by Lorenzo da Ponte and is probably based on Orlando furioso (Orlando the Mad), written in 1516 by the Italian poet Lodovico Ariosto and in turn based on a story by the Roman poet Ovid. The opera’s title means “All women are like that.” However, this opera is sometimes performed in English under the title The School for Lovers. It received its first performance at the Vienna Burgtheater on Jan. 26, 1790.
Loading the player...Cosi Fan Tutte (All Women Are Like That)
The opera is set in Naples in the late 1700’s. Ferrando and Guglielmo are engaged to be married to the two sisters Dorabella and Fiordiligi. At the start of the opera, the two young men boast about the faithfulness of their fiancees. Don Alfonso declares that all women are fickle and he can prove it. With Ferrando and Guglielmo, he hatches a plan to test the fidelity of the two women. He tells the sisters that the two men have joined the army. In a tearful farewell to their loved ones, Fiordiligi and Dorabella promise to be true, and the young men depart.
With the connivance of the sisters’ maid Despina, Alfonso now introduces Fiordiligi and Dorabella to two friends of his from Albania. These visiting Albanians are Ferrando and Guglielmo in disguise. Ferrando now woos Fiordiligi and Guglielmo courts Dorabella. When the two disguised suitors are rejected, they pretend to swallow poison. Although the women weaken slightly, they continue to express their loyalty to their husbands-to-be. Despina, disguised as a doctor, arrives and cures the two men using magnets. (This was a playful reference by Mozart to Franz Anton Mesmer, an Austrian physician whose theories about medical treatment included a belief in animal magnetism.)
With the young men now “well” again, the sisters consider having a little innocent flirtation. Dorabella, Ferrando’s fiancee, exchanges tokens of love with the disguised Guglielmo. When Ferrando learns this, he redoubles his efforts to win the heart of Fiordiligi, who up to this point has stayed true to Guglielmo. However, she too soon surrenders her love to him, and a double wedding is arranged. A military march heralds the return of the young men from the army. The “Albanians” run away and Ferrando and Guglielmo soon enter the scene. They find the marriage contract dropped by Don Alfonso, and angrily interrogate the women about it. Then they reveal their deception, and the opera ends happily.
