St. Paul’s Opera
Così fan tutte
Ashley Pearson, director
Così fan tutte (1790) was the third and final collaboration between librettist Lorenzo da Ponte and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the one with the least straightforward history. Like Le nozze di Figaro (1786) and (Il) Don Giovanni (1787) it was a comic opera whose tone was wryly witty in both words and music. However, its story was not derived, as before, from a play or pre-existent opera. Rather, it was based (reputedly) on some topical Viennese incident and revelled in holding up a mirror to contemporary morals: its laconic twin titles (Così fan tutte /La scuola degli amanti) mean 'This is what all women get up to [when their men are away]: or the school[ing] of lovers'.
