Così fan tutte: Things you never knew...
Scandals, rivalry and feuds — the secrets of Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte exposed!
The storyline of Così fan tutte, based around infidelity, was considered very scandalous in the 19th Century. Therefore anytime the opera was performed it was accompanied by an apology for the frivolous plot, altered or sometimes completely rewritten!
In 1994, two works by Mozart’s contemporary Antonio Salieri were discovered, showing that Salieri also attempted to set the libretto of Così fan tutte to music, but did not complete the project.
The full title, Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti translates as ‘Thus do all [women], or The School for Lovers’ but it is often simplified to ‘Women are like that.’ The words are sung by the men in Act II, just before the finale. Librettist da Ponte had also used the line ‘Così fan tutte le belle’ previously in The Marriage of Figaro.
Mozart’s own life slightly resembled the story of Così fan tutte for a time – a few years before he married his wife Constanze Weber, he was engaged to her sister Aloysia.
Mozart created the role of Fiordiligi for da Ponte's mistress Adriana Ferrarese del Bene. However, he disliked her intensely, and, knowing her idiosyncratic tendency to drop her chin on low notes and throw back her head on high ones, he filled her showpiece aria ‘Come scoglio’ (‘Like a rock/fortress’) with constant leaps from low to high and high to low in order to make the prima donna’s head "bob like a chicken" onstage!
Così fan tutte opens at Opera North on 3 February 2016. Visit our website to buy tickets or for more infomation.
Top image: Così fan tutte at Opera North in 2009. Photo credit Tristram Kenton