BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO COSÌ FAN TUTTE

The original pairs: Guglielmo and Fiordiligi; Ferrando and Dorabella

The tricksters: Don Alfonso and Despina

The swapped pairs: Disguised Guglielmo and Dorabella; Disguised Ferrando and Fiordiligi

Opera Vocab

Opera: a dramatic work in one or more acts, set to music for singers and instrumentalists

Voice Type: soprano (highest), mezzosoprano, contralto, countertenor, tenor, baritone, bass (lowest)

Aria: a piece for one voice in an opera (a song for a solo singer). It derives from the Greek and Latin ‘aer’, meaning ‘air’.

Bravo(a): an Italian term used to celebrate a standout performance

Libretto: the text of an opera

Conductor: a person who conducts an orchestra, chorus, opera company, or other musical group in a performance

Quick Fire Synopsis

Deception, love triangles, epic meltdowns, bad disguises, and teenage weddings. Daytime television melodrama? No. More like a day in the life of sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella.

Don Alfonso wagers that he can prove to Ferrando and Guglielmo that all women (including their fiancés) are unfaithful. They take the bet and agree to go along with Alfonso’s schemes starting with pretending to be sent to war. After some melodramatic meltdowns and advice from their maid Despina, Fiordiligi and Dorabella are introduced to Don Alfonso’s “friends” (Ferrando and Guglielmo in disguise). When the girls refuse the advances of their new suitors, the mustachioed admirers pretend to drink poison. After the morning’s events, the girls agree to go on dates with their new beaus, only they pick the opposite man than they each started the day wanting to marry.

Ultimately, both girls accept the advances of their new suitors and agree to marry these strange new men, but not without being put through the wringer. As their knockoff notary (Despina in disguise) completes the marriage contract, the drums sound and the regiment returns from war. The men run away and reenter as their actual selves. Everyone reveals their deceptions from the day and sings a rousing chorus of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Do the lovers end up together? And in which pairs? Don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything. The opera ends without answering any of these questions.

COSÌ FUN FACTS!

• Così fan tutte was written the year Mozart died.

• Beethoven hated the opera.

• The score is ambiguous as to how the couples end up.

• Mozart did not like the singer who premiered Fiordiligi.

• Mozart wrote his first opera at the age of 10.

OPERA TIP: A trip to the opera is the perfect place to find love! Disguises sold separately.

Act I

Don Alfonso is trying to enlighten Ferrando and Guglielmo as to the true nature of women. He places a bet that he can prove their fiancées, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, are not the icons of purity the young men believe them to be. Both sides are confident of victory within twenty-four hours, and during this period Ferrando and Guglielmo agree to do as they are told by Alfonso.

Sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella are celebrating the virtues of their lovers. Alfonso tells them that their men have been called up and must leave immediately for the “front lines”. The men feign a tearful farewell scene and “go off to war.” The women are devastated but their maid, Despina, tells them to look on the bright side and have a good time in their absence—in other words, behave exactly as men would do.

Don Alfonso enlists Despina in his scheme, and he presents two “Albanian” friends to the sisters. Neither Fiordiligi nor Dorabella recognize Guglielmo and Ferrando in disguise.

Offended to see the strange men, Fiordiligi and Dorabella are repelled by their advances. They declare fidelity to their lovers. The young men are delighted but Alfonso is still confident in his ultimate triumph.

The sisters continue to grieve for their men at the front. The two Albanians return and, despondent in the women’s rejection, swallow “poison” and collapse. The terrified girls call for Despina, who goes to find a doctor who claims to cure any illness by magnetism. The men revive and believing they are in heaven, demand a kiss from their “angels,” Fiordiligi and Dorabella. The sisters rebuff their advances once again.

Intermission

Act Ii

Despina persuades the sisters to befriend their new admirers. They decide on preferences: Dorabella chooses Guglielmo; Fiordiligi selects Ferrando. Each has instinctively chosen the other’s partner. Dorabella yields to Guglielmo, exchanging lockets as a pledge of fidelity. Meanwhile, Fiordiligi rejects Ferrando.

Ferrando and Guglielmo report on their progress. Ferrando is furious at the infidelity of his fiancée, Dorabella.

Despina and Dorabella put pressure on Fiordiligi to have fun. Fiordiligi decides she must run away to join Guglielmo at war, but Ferrando confronts her again and she finally yields. Agonized, Guglielmo witnesses it all. Don Alfonso has proven his point and won the bet.

Don Alfonso and Despina arrange for the new couples to be “married” by Despina, disguised as a notary. As the girls sign their names, a military band is heard, signaling that the soldiers have returned unexpectedly. In the confusion, the two men disappear, reemerging without their disguise. Shocked at the evidence of a wedding they swear vengeance on their rivals.

The entire plot is finally revealed. All four lovers’ certainties have been destroyed and no one knows quite what to believe, except that human nature is far more complex than they ever imagined.

Courtesy of San Francisco Opera

Tdo Performance History

The company has performed Così fan tutte four times in the following seasons: 1984/1985, 1992/1993, 2003/2004, and 2009/2010.

This production of Così fan tutte was conceived as the middle chapter of a trilogy of operas dubbed The Great American House of Mozart-DaPonte. We [San Francisco Opera and I] set all three works by this masterful composerlibrettist team in the same place but spaced 150 years apart. The first piece, Le Nozze di Figaro, sees the construction of a mansion somewhere in the Northeastern US in the late 1780’s, shortly after the American Revolution. It is a story about hope and possibility and setting it amidst the building of a great house represents the beginning of a wonderful and challenging journey for the characters and their country. The final opera, Don Giovanni, is about finality and consequence. The time setting is the late 2080’s, a dystopian near future, and the great house (and the world) now sits in ruins. This is the result of the short-sighted pursuit of selfish and destructive goals, as personified by the title character, and it ends the trilogy on a cautionary note.

Così fan tutte belongs in the middle, and stands easily on its own merits, because it examines people, and a society, at a crossroads. The great house has changed hands many times in the 150 years since it was built. Now it stands at the peak of its form, repurposed as a luxurious country club in the late 1930’s. America, too, finds itself in an era of great transition. It has emerged from the Great Depression only to see the winds of war swirling once again in Europe. It is poised at a crossroads of its own, needing to decide between inwardlooking isolationism or a rightful place among the great nations on the world stage.

The two couples at the heart of the story, meanwhile, couldn’t care less about any of that. They care only about what they have and what they want. The men are inexperienced, overconfident, privileged, and sheltered. This is the perfect set of pre-conditions for disaster when it comes to life choices. The sisters to whom they’re engaged share the same character flaws. With their inflated sense of self, poor impulse control, and immaturity, they’re also powerless to prevent their lives from spiraling out of control. Lucky for them, they have an ally to soften their fall and impart important life lessons along the way. But fall they do, and the fact that they and their fiancés are unwitting participants in a social experiment by an embittered elder doesn’t excuse their choices or behavior. That they’re unwilling or unable to consider the real consequences of their actions explains everything. So it is with societies, too.

If we focus solely on personal choices we’re doomed to fail as a community. An individual’s rights and freedoms are important, of course, but they must exist within a framework that supports and secures the common good. We all agree that no-one’s actions should threaten the safety, security, or sustainability of families, neighborhoods, or nations.

This, in big ways and small, is the lesson of Così fan tutte. The subtitle of the opera is “La scuola degli amanti” or The School for Lovers, and it has something to teach us all. We cannot (or should not) live our lives only in the moment, and only for ourselves. We should not live in a fantasy world, with an idealized version of our future. We must take a clear-eyed look at ourselves and those around us and carefully consider the consequences of our actions. This is the only way to survive and thrive, whether as a partner in a relationship, a member of a household, or even a nation like America within the world. The alternative leads, inevitably, to confusion, anxiety, disappointment, and distress...or worse. But, with Mozart and DaPonte as our teachers, there has never been a better or more enjoyable way to learn these all-important lessons.

—Michael Cavanagh, director