The online opera channelis to COSI FAN TUTTE
When Mozart wrote "Cosi fan tutte" in 1790, He was economically devastated. He wrote this opera in an incredible 2 months in his penultimat class of death. Mozart again offers us an abundance of melodies. Especially the ensemble scenes like the love duets "soave sia il vento" or "IL mio cor vi dono" persist immortal.
OVERVIEW & QUICK ACCESS
Content
♪ Synopsis
♪ Commentary
♪ Act I
♪ Act II
Recording Recommendation
♪ Transcription Testimonial
Highlights
♪ Ouvertüre
♪ Ah guarda sorella
♪ Sento o Dio
♪ Di scrivermi ogni giorno
♪ Soave sia il vento
♪ In uomini in soldati
♪ Come scoglio
♪ Un aura amorosa
♪ A che tutta in un momento
♪ Prendero quel brunettino
♪ Secondate, aurette amiche
♪ Forty-nine cor vi dono
♪ Fra gli amplessi
♪ E nel tuo, nel mio bicchiero
ROLES AND SYNOPSIS OF COSI FAN TUTTE IN 4 MINUTES
LIBRETTO
Lorenzo Da Ponte
THE MAIN ROLES
Don Alfonso, old philosopher (bass) - Guglielmo, officer and fiancé of Fiordiligi (baritone) - Ferrando , officer and fiancé of Dorabella (bass) - Fiordiligi, lady of Ferrara (high) - Dorabella, lady of Ferrara, sister of Fiordiligi (mezzo) - Despina, chambermaid of the ladies (mezzo-soprano)
RECORDING RECOMMENDATION
Warner Classics with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Nan Merriman, Lisa Otto, Léopold Simoneau, Ronaldo Panerai and Sesto Bruscantini conducted by Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra and Refrain.
COMMENTARY
A libretto without a literary model
District attorney Ponte wrote this opera without a literary model. An anecdote says that the emperor himself told da Ponte a report where cardinal manpower were said to have put their fiancés to the test after making a bet with a third. At that place may have been inspiration in literature likewise, but whatever the lawsuit, the libretto mustiness personify considered its own. Throughout history, there were many art experts and artists who considered it too frivolous (including Wagner and Beethoven), and the opera's success suffered Eastern Samoa a result. "Cosi devotee tutte" basically became popular only in the 20th hundred and since then it has been considered an grave part of the so brightly shining triumvirate of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Da Ponte operas.
The history of the composition of "Cosi fan tutte"
When Mozart began writing "Cosi fan tutte" at the end of 1789, he was economically down. His finances had been in bad shape for most four geezerhood, without him having cut back on his modus vivendi for whatsoever length of time. The desperate trips to Frankfurt of 1789 and 1790 did not help, so atomic number 2 wanted to write the opera in the shortest possible time in order to get money into his empty pockets quickly. He began work on the score in November 1789 and on New Year's Eve showed excerpts from the opera to assorted friends (including Joseph Haydn, whose opinion Mozart held in last esteem) and along January 26, after only 2 months, the premiere took place. The reception of the Viennese public was friendly but unenthusiastic. Mozart remained dogged by mishap, for shortly thereafter his patron Emperor Chief Joseph II died and afterwards the fifth performance, imputable the decreed state mourning, performances ceased.
Music
No another opera house by Mozart offers sol many ensemble pieces as "Cosi fan tutte", there are 13 pieces in total. The plot of the opera cries out for duets, trios, etc. Mozart was able to pull down from a wealth of material, Eastern Samoa his mastery of bedroom medicine forms, such Eastern Samoa chain quartets with their polyphonic forms, provided the nonpareil introduction. As all told later operas, the orchestral discourse is virtuosic; the winds in particular are used in immense variety, creating glorious colors. Mozart even uses a pure scent out ensemble in one piece ("Secondate, aurette amiche").
Function design
It is particularly striking how Mozart differentiated the singer roles. Fiordiligi calls for a dramatic coloratura soprano, Dorabella corresponds to the exact opposite, that is to say a lyrical mezzo-soprano. It is similar with the male counterparts: we fulfill a lyric strain (Ferrando) and a buffo baritone (Guglielmo). Additionally, there is the buffo freshwater bass (Alfonso) and a lyric coloratura soprano (Despina). For Mozart, the division of the roles into seria (F, F), mezza-buffa (D, G) and buffa (D,A) was extremely important in grade to have a zealous musical diversity and to cater for variety. He could combine the audience to understand the codes of roles and to be healthy to correctly interpret the ambiguities that often make rising the text and medicine of Mozart.
COSI FAN TUTTE Bi I
Short in front beginning work on "Cosi fan tutte," Mozart had composed his three grandiose last symphonies and was at the heyday of his fictive powers in the symphonic field. It is therefore not startling that the advance is same of the absolute highlights of this opera. A respected musicologist even considered Cosi fan tutte to be "the about beautiful orchestral work of the entire 18th century."
Ouverture – Marriner
Guglielmo, Ferrando meet Wear Alfonso
Synospsis:Guglielmo and Ferrando, two officers of the Neapolitan army, are sitting in the burnt umber theatre. They are joined by the old philosopher Don Alfonso. The two young men rave about their fiancés and sing of their virtues and fidelity to them. Preceptor Alfonso, who has become distrustful finished life, claims that no fill is eternally faithful. Indignantly, the two officers refuse this to their lovers.
Mozart leads us right into the middle of the military action with the effervescent motive of the violins. The veteran Don River Alfonso (a retired Don Giovanni?) is faced with two whimsical young men.
Listen to this terzetto from Karl Böhm's good 1964 recording, which we will skirmish several more times. Alfredo Kraus, Giuseppe Taddei and Walter Berry sing.
La mia Dorabella capace non è – Kraus / Taddei / Charles Edward Berry
Synospsis: Merely Alfonso sticks to his judgment: fidelity of women is like the Phoenix, everyone talks about IT, but no unrivalled has ever seen it. The two young men are indignant and requirement a duel. Whereupon Alfonso offers them a bet, they single make to Lashkar-e-Taiba him have one sidereal day.
E' la fede delle femmine – Lima / Monarsolo / Furlanetto
Synospsis:Guglielmo and Ferrando hope it. The triplet feature set a betting sum of 300 zechines. The two men are already imagining what they will do with the money they have won.
The music begins with fiery military music. Mozart now differentiates the characters of the officers; he gives the passionate Ferrando a cantilena and the pleasure-quest Guglielmo sings an only too worldly melody.
Una bella serenata – Araiza / van Dam / Allen
The sisters are in prediction of the wedding
Synopsis: The two sisters, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, are in the garden. They rave about their fiancés and are already dreaming upward their wedding party.
It is simply brilliant how Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart draws this scene of the 2 women in the garden to the sea. A soothing rhythm and delicate motifs of strings and winds evoke a house painting of Arcadian tranquility and mild swells of the sea. The duet of the two women is exquisite, especially the coloratura in the thirds interval of the second component part is beautifully composed.
Take heed to the duet of the two Yankee divas (the terminus comes from Di Donato) Renee Fleming and Joyce di Donato in a tremendous concert take out.
Ah guarda sorella – Fleming / di Donato
Precis: Then Don Alfonso joins the ladies and, still in shock, tells them the terrible news that their fiancés must attend war. Ferrando and Guglielmo sum the shaken women and confirm the conscription order.
The funniness begins. Mozart alternates contrapuntal and concurrent passages in the lively quintet, and the five singers meet vocally fourfold on the comedic "chi?".
In the following transcription we hear many protagonists of the famous Viennese ensemble, which was famous for its Mozart recording of the 1950s. What was the philosophy behind IT? "The conductor Josef Krips set down it in the accepted chemical formula that just an instrumentally led voice is a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart voice. That truth and tractability, elegance and nobility were the foundations of Mozart singing" (Kesting). Listen to more or less of the protagonists of this permanent ensemble of the Austrian capital State Opera house. Christa Ludwig, Lisa della Casa, Anton Dermota, Erich Kunz and Paul Schöffler sing.
Sento o Dio – Ludwig / della Casa / Dermota / Kunz / Schöffler
Synopsis: The two women are inconsolable and want to die. The 2 men are able to comfort them and they say goodbye to apiece other tenderly, Don Alicia Alonso stands by and smiles. He justified has villagers dressed as soldiers escort them to their embark.
This farewell scene is so poignantly written that Don River Alfonso listens intimately at the beginning, only then can no yearner contain himself from laughing.
Di scrivermi ogni giorno – Lima / Furlanetto / Gruberova / Ziegler / Montarsolo
The great farewell scene – "Soave sia il vento".
Synopsis: Wistfully, Alfonso and the two women look after the ship, which easy moves off from them.
This trio is one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's absolute superior vocal pieces; he carries the States off into a supernatural world. Mozart accompanies the tierce voices with muted violins imitating gentle waves. In addition, the quiet pizzicati of the low strings and long lines of the viola draw the tranquility of the landscape.
You will see this terzetto in an rendition by Christa Ludwig, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Walter Berry. This recording comes from the legendary Cosi fan tutte recording produced by Walter Legge.
Soave sia il vento (1) – Schwarzkopf / Ludwig / Charles Edward Berry
You will pick up a second version in the Solti recording with von Otter, Ian Fleming and Perrusi.
Soave sia 49 vento (2) – Solti / Fleming / von Otter
The arias of Dorabella and Despina
Outline: Dorabella is agitated. Relentless storms rage in her heart.
In her aria "Smanie implacabile," the romantically atilt Dorabella gives expression to her anguish, the pain of which will lead her to her demise. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sets this aria to euphony dramatically, Dorabella repetition the ending "gap suono orribile dei miei sospir" (the horrific sound of my sighs) several times until she sinks down dog-tired. Still, the notes seem a bit overly dramatic work and pathetic, soh this scene should be interpreted arsenic overly comedic.
Listen in to Elina Garanca in this aria of Dorabella.
Ah scostati … smanie implacabile – Garanca
Despina – a realist appears
Synopsis: The housekeeper Despina joins the two. She cannot understand the grief of the 2. If their fiancées fall in the war, a replacing can be base quickly. And anyway, one should not await fidelity from men generally and from soldiers particularly.
Mozart offers us a brilliant portrayal of Despina. She has learned in spirit that one should not expect faithfulness in beloved and this aria is the unvarnished list of male flaws. So in her aria she plays with the word "fedeltà", repetition IT three multiplication with more and more coloratura, so that anyone who believes in it must smel like a naive person. In the second part she complains, with acted indignation, that the men want to take the women for their pleasures with hypocritical affection and in the end she asks the women to pay out back the men in the same strike.
This piece gives a Despina, who is at the top of her profession, the opportunity to show in a improvident time the many comedic and tattle aspects of this arietta. Cecilia Bartoli accomplishes this task with a wonderful blend of charm, elegance and cunning. Watch her acted indignation in "Non Captain Hicks fate sentir per carità" or her harmful seventh cranial nerve expressions in "Chieder pietà".
In uomini in soldati – Bartoli
The sextett «Alla bella Despinetta»
Synopsis:Don Alfonso bribes the housekeeper Despina to join in the brave. Already Ferrando and Guglielmo enter disguised as Albanians and rave about the cardinal ravishing ladies. Fiordiligi and Dorabella are indignant and desire to get the two strangers thrown and twisted down of the theatre.
As the disguised Albanians step in forepart of Despina, a motif from the introductory troika is heard in the woodwinds, revealing Ferrando and Guglielmo to the audience behind the disguise. After Fiordiligi and Dorabella appear and reject the two, the sextet begins that is musically divided into trine duet parts.
Take heed other great ensemble set up from the 1955 Karajan recording.
Alla bella despinetta – Schwarzkopf et al.
Come scoglio – Fiordiligi's aria «Come scoglio»
Synopsis: Then Alfonso gets the musical theme to greet the two as honest-to-god acquaintances. But Fiordiligi declares that her heart is as solid atomic number 3 a John Rock.
This piece of Fiordiligi is one and only of Mozart's all but noncompliant arias ever. The pitch range of the aria is with child at nearly two octaves, and often several leaps fall into the same phrase. For model, in the first part, right at the beginning in the endorse blood in "Contro venti e tempesta" to underline the dramatic nature of Fiordiligi's statement "like a rock unassailable" ("Come scoglio"). In the second start ("Cosi ognor") we learn the quixotic, enraptured Fiordiligi. In the one-third part she sings with greater determination the "Come in scoglio" passage ("death alone is able to turn the opinion"). The aria ends with a comely but rigorous passage with many coloraturas, which must be Sung dynasty at a fast tempo and with much intensity and part in a rattling high register.
Fiordiligi was one of the quintuplet central roles Elisabeth Schwarzkopf played in her life (along with the Marschallin, Donna Elvira and the two Countesses in "Le nozze di Figaro" and "Capriccio"). Her singing style and voice were perfectly suited to these roles. Perhaps there was no greater Fiordiligi than Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
Come scoglio (1) – Schwarzkopf
A second recording you will hear is by Kiri Te Kanawa. IT is more expressive than the one by Schwarzkopf, whose interpretation seems more inward-looking.
Come scoglio (2) – Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
The arias of the Albanians in disguise – "Un aureole amorosa".
Synopsis: Guglielmo tries IT with Dorabella, but is self-defeating with his advances. The two men triumph over the staunchness of their fiancée. Ferrando says that a heart nourished by love needs no other food, and therefore they demand not fear that their betrothed will weaken.
This aria is a lyrical resting point. Accompanied by muted violins and lukewarm sea bass sounds, Ferrando sings a romantic aria.
Ferrando's aria "Un'aura amorosa" belongs to the exclusive circle of highlights of the opera. Heed to the aria understood by Léopold Simoneau from the Karajan recording. Kesting ("Grosse Stimmen"): "The Karajan recording is unitary of the great Mozart recordings of the century. Information technology is more than technically perfect, namely providential in its liveliness and subtlety. Simoneau sings his separate with untellable tonal sweetness."
Un aura amorosa (1) – Simoneau
A second recording you bequeath hear is by Jonas Kaufmann, listed in 1998 at the very beginning of his career. Kaufmann describes in his Word "Jonas Kaufmann" (by Thomas Voigt) how this recording came about. He got a cry out from the great director Giorgio Strehler. A first audition was excellent and the engagement almost a foregone conclusion. Just a little later Strehler found Kaufmann too grey-headed. Kaufmann was only 27, but a few weeks later Strehler approached him again and the collaboration worked. Kaufmann was highly impressed by Strehler, the man of the theater, precisely because he did non prescribe everything, but asked the singers to think along with him. Unfortunately for Kaufmann, Strehler died a couple of weeks before the first performance of this Milanese Cosi fan tutte.
United Nations aura amorosa (2) – Kaufmann
Fiordiligi and Dorabella are distracted
Precis: Fiordiligi and Dorabella sit in the garden, disquieted.
Introduced by a sorely sweet motif in the violins and an elegant champagne flute motif, the enchanting duet of the deuce women begins, aware of the Arcadian duet of their first coming into court. However, a touch of melancholy hangs finished the scene, which the two women nostalgically evoke in exquisite singing in thirds.
You are listening to a beautiful recording of this duet with the dream cast of Christa Ludwig and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf with the delicate merely never cloying accompaniment by Karl Böhm.
Ah, che tutta in un momento – Ludwig / Schwarzkopf
The finale of the front act of Cosi fan tutte
Synopsis: Don Alfonso and Despina do non give ahead and Don Alfonso comes up with an idea: the two Albanians pretend to take poison unsuccessful of desperation because of unrequited love life. They eat u arsenous oxide ahead of the women. Despina, disguised as a doctor, is called in to save them. This self-destruction attempt moves the cardinal women, but they are not (yet) ready to swallow the osculation of thanks from the rescued men.
Si mora, si mora – Gruberova / Karl Waldemar Ziegler / Stratas / Furlanetto / Lima / Montarsolo
The first turn ends with a lively half a dozen accompanied aside a loose minuet and with a comedic Despina (listen to Despina's great trill) taking the mickey out of a unqualified illustrious in Mozart's day.
We listen to the recording from the Karajan recording.
Eccovi il medico – Gruberova / Ziegler / Stratas / Furlanetto / Lima / Montarsolo
COSI FAN TUTTE Do II
In the chamber of women
Synopsis:Despina is with the two women and explains how to wrap men around one' s finger.
In that aria of Despina's, we repeatedly hear the somewhat awkward consumption of the horns, which prophesies the future sue and thus the "horned" fiancées.
See Cecilia Bartoli at the age of 24 in a recording from 1990.
Una donna da qunidici anni – Bartoli
Synopsis:Dorabella, already fickle, sees nary breach of faith in just having a bit fun rather than dying of tedium. It quickly becomes apparent that both have their favorite.
The humor of the two sisters has turned. This piece is a light-flat-footed but exacting duet with galore coloraturas, whatsoever of which are parallel.
Listen to the recording with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Nan Merriman from the Karajan transcription.
Prendero quel brunettino – Merriman / Schwarzkopf
The magical serenade
Synopsis:In the garden, the two men serenade their beloved.
The two men change their strategy and use the weapon of a serenade. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart accompanies the yearning Sung dynasty just with air current instruments and lets it slice away quietly from a distant chorus. Information technology is a moment of peace, a brief, enchanted pause in which lyrical quietude reigns, making us forget the deceptions and malignancies we have experienced.
Secondate, aurette amiche – Simoneau / Panerai
The beautiful latria of Dorabella
Synopsis:Don Alfonso asks the ladies to get their choice. Separately, the couples cash in one's chips for a walk. Dorabella is the forward to be caught. Guglielmo's courtship is effective, and he quiet pities Ferrando. He even succeeds in exchanging Ferrando's medallion, which Dorabella wears around her neck, with his personal.
This seductive duet has been poetized away Da Ponte with ambiguous verses, but Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart seems to elude information technology. He writes another beautiful love duet with rhythmic hearts.
Hear a wonderfully languorous, romanticist Bryn Terfel in duet with Cecilia Bartoli.
Il cor vi dono – Bartoli / Terfel
Fiordiligi's internal struggles and Ferrando's vain attempt
Synopsis:Ferrando as wel tries his luck. But Fiordiligi remains stiff.
This aria calls for a vocally nimble tenor who Edgar Lee Masters the coloratura of this aria and is stop up in the high notes: the melody is repeated three times, whorled for each one time higher.
Hear to Francisco Araiza, a proven Mozart tenor.
A lo veggio – Araiza/Marriner
Synopsis:Fiordiligi mustiness in secret admit to herself that her heart beatniks for this romantic wooer, and in her mind she begs her absent fiancé for forgiveness.
Probably Da Ponte had appointed two arias each to both sisters, matchless of which was to be serious, and the other comedic. In Dorabella's incase, we throne observe it this agency. Merely Fiordiligi's second aria (after the serious "Amount scoglio") remains reflective. If "Follow scoglio" was rather hammy and designed with coloratura, in "Per pietà ben mio" the singer must Be able to hold the tension of the cantilenas complete the comparatively long duration of the aria. Tremendous, dramatic leaps of tone characterize the first, recitative-like section. The following Allegro captivates with the beautiful dialogue of the part with the loveable sounds of the horns.
"Singing with soul" was an attribute with which Irmgard Seefried was always associated. She ne'er spared herself Beaver State her voice. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who often sang with her, said "with her you could hear how far you could travel in expression." Hear to this aria as interpreted by Irmgard Seefried.
Per pietà ben mio – Seefried
Dorabella assigns the inculpation to Cupid
Outline:Guglielmo shows the shocked Ferrando the talisman and is delighted with the staunchness of his Fiordiligi. Ferrando is devastated. Jealousy and vengefulness eat by at him. In the room, Despinetta congratulates Dorabella on her catch. Dorabella does not take the fault, but elegantly assigns it to Amor, the god of have it away.
Mozart portrays a young carefree Dorabella in this aria.
Heed to the interpreting by Elina Garanca.
È amore un ladroncello – Garanca
Mozart's pregnant love scene of Fiordiligi and Ferrando
Synopsis:Fiordiligi confesses to Dorabella that she has fallen in love. But she wants to remain firm. She orders Despinetta to fetch her men's uniforms. She wants to fight her way to her fiancées with Dorabella and die in battle if necessary. But the next clip she meets Ferrando, she as well weakens when he pretends to pop himself with a dagger out of lovesickness. She finally gives herself to the wooing Albanian.
This passage has a prominent topographic point in the opera. Mozart and DA Ponte conceived it unco. We first gather Fiordiligi in thought. She is in anticipation of her impendent reunion with her fiancé. Her aria is suddenly fitful by Ferrando, who takes up her melody and and so makes a bumper-to-bumper, romantic declaration of love to her ("Volgi a me"). Accompanied by a romantic oboe cantilena, Fiordiligi is infatuated; threefold she repeats "Giusto ciel!" ("God in Nirvana"), with a crescendo from the orchestra she cries "Crudel!", and after a languorous oboe passage she cries "Fa' di me quel che ti par" ("Do with me what you bequeath"). Then the two end the piece with a wonderful, harmonic duad (the metaphor of the consummated act up).
Astonished, we rub our eyes. Wasn't this a thoughtful love duet? Mozart writes such divine music for the "wrong" couples. Remember the love duet of Guglielmo and Dorabella with the beating marrow ("Il mio cor six dono"), wasn't that also heavenly? Is that what comedy is all about?
Listen in and understand Edita Gruberova and Luis Lima in this soulful duet.
Fra gli amplessi – Gruberova / Lima
Guglielmos frustration
Synopsis:Now IT is up to Ferrando to get angry with his fiancée.
Listen in to Thomas Hampson in Donne mie la fate a tanti.
Donne mie la fate a tanti – Hampson
Synopsis: For Alfonso, the fall of Fiordiligi was non a surprise, because "Cosi rooter tutte".
Like a sho we understand the overture better and recognize the musical motif from the overture:
Tutti accusan le donne – Montarsolo
The dramatic coda begins
Synopsis: Now goose egg stands in the way of a marriage and hectic preparations of the wedding banquet are connected the agenda.
Fate presto, o cari amici – Stratas / Montarsolo
Precis: In seventh heaven, the four await the nuptials.
Earlier the intricacies of the ending, Mozart wrote a rapturous canon for three voices. Only Guglielmo withdraws from the singing; He is too disappointed in his Fiordiligi.
E nel tuo, nel mio bicchiero – Gruberova / Ziegler / Furlanetto / Lima
Synopsis: Alfonso arranges a double marriage ceremony with Despina disguised as a notary. No rather is the ink dry under the marriage settlement than the surprise arrival of the officers announces itself. The two gentlemen flee and the cardinal women have to confess in dishonor everything to the deuce returnees . But the funniness is non yet finished. Guglielmo and Ferrando thaw the masquerade and reveal themselves as the former Albanians. The women well-nig lose their minds. Don Alfonso pockets the money and reconciles the wiser couples.
The unmasking is comedic, accompanied by musical quotations such American Samoa Ferrando's love motif operating theatre Despina's long warble as former "Medico". With a final concertato this great funniness ends.
Sani e salvi – Gruberova / Ziegler Stratas / Furlanetto / Lima / Montarsolo
Recording good word
Warner CLASSICS, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Nan Merriman, Lisa Otto, Léopold Simoneau, Ronaldo Panerai and Sesto Bruscantini conducted by Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus.
St. Peter Lutz, Opera-inside, the online opera guide to COSI FAN TUTTE aside Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
What Is the Melody of Cosi Fan Tutte
Source: https://opera-inside.com/cosi-fan-tutte-by-wolfgang-amadeus-mozart-the-opera-guide-and-synopsis/