Glyndebourne: Così fan tutte
Wed 13 Sep 2017Well, let’s start at the beginning, with that title. The opera’s full title is Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti. As that’s a bit of a mouthful, usually only the first half of used. The most literal translation of this is ‘Thus do they all’, but it should be noted that tutte is a feminine plural in Italian, meaning the title is better translated as ‘Thus do all women’, ‘women are like that’ – it’s even sometimes translated as ‘all women are the same’. Possibly a touch sexist, but then it was first performed in 1790. The second half of the title simply means ‘or, The School For Lovers’.
Così fan tutte is what’s known as an opera buffa, or comic opera. Although it’s written in Italian, it was first performed in Vienna, where Mozart was living and working at the time. The plot – as is standard for a comic opera at this time – concerns itself with the travails of young love. Led astray by wily old cynic Don Alfonso, Ferrando and Guglielmo make a bet that their fiancées, Dorabella and Fiordiligi (who are sisters), will always be faithful to them, and come up with a way of putting this to the test. They tell the girls they are off to war, but instead disguise themselves as Albanians, and each attempts to woo the other’s fiancée, aided and abetted by Don Alfonso and Despina, the girls’ maid, who has been let in on the secret.
Confusion reigns, at length, with the girls proving to be far from immune to their new suitors charms. However, as this is a comic opera, all is happily resolved, with the couples forgiving each other, and agreeing to live happily ever after. This plot proved popular with the cosmopolitan Viennese of the late eighteenth century, but throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it was regarded as immoral, meaning that it was rarely performed.
This meant that audiences missed out on hearing some of Mozart’s best tunes – Così is a near continuous roll-call of favourites, including the trio Soave sia il vento and the arias Come scoglio, and È amore un ladroncello, which have helped secure it’s place as one of the world’s most popular operas.
This year’s Glyndebourne production, directed by Nicholas Hytner (the former Artistic Director of the National Theatre) is a lavish one, which takes the opera back to its eighteenth century roots in terms of costume and setting.
Così fan tutte: Tuesday 31 October & Thursday 2 November