Classical Music | Baritone

Recorded on 05/01/2007, uploaded on 03/27/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Mozart's third collaboration with the Italian librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, Così fan tutte premiered on January 26, 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna. The opera's run was unfortunately cut short by the death of Emperor Joseph II and the subsequent period of court mourning. It was given a handful of performances during the following summer. However, during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, it was rarely performed due to its subject matter being considered too risqué. Today, however, it is one of Mozart's most performed operas.

The plot of Così fan tutte, often translated as "All women are like that," begins with two officers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, "swapping" fiancées to prove whether they will remain faithful. After confidently stating that their fiancées will remain true, they accept the wager of Don Alfonso, who believes that, like all women, they will not. The two officers pretend to be called off to war, leaving their fiancées alone. They then return disguised as "Albanians," attempting to woo each other's fiancée and hopefully win their wager. Though the two women initially resist the supposed "strangers," Dorabella (Ferrando's fiancée) eventually willing gives in to Guglielmo, offering him a medallion, with a picture of Ferrando in it, in return for a heart-shaped locket. Ferrando, on the other hand, is less successful in wooing Guglielmo's fiancée, Fiordiligi. When the two officers meet later, Ferrando is angry that Dorabella has so easily given away the medallion with his portrait. Guglielmo initially is sympathetic to Ferrando's distress but then brags that his fiancée has remained faithful. At the conclusion of the opera, both women are about to marry the "Albanians" in a double wedding when music announces the return of the army and, so the women believe, their fiancées. Ferrando and Guglielmo sneak off to change into their uniforms and return professing their love, but then pretend to be enraged when they find out their fiancées were about to marry other men. The two men then reveal their scheme and all is forgiven.