Così fan tutte

Mozart and Da Ponte masterfully applied a formula popular in the 18th century, established by Metastasio, along with traditional facial expressions and gestures, but did not otherwise follow the beaten track. Rather, using irony, cleverly interpretive orchestration, disclosure of the ambivalence of emotions, revelation of the togetherness of the “wrong” couples, and through “self-satire and a parodying musical commentary on the text and plot” (Susanne Vill) the generic term opera buffa was endowed with an unusually tragic undertone in its storyline and the positive ending demanded by convention was conspicuously questioned.