Short Summary
Two young men, Ferrando and Guglielmo, bet that their fiancées, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, will always be faithful to them. Their friend Don Alfonso convinces them to carry out a test.
The men disguise themselves and try to test the fidelity of their lovers. The women are wooed by the supposed strangers and eventually fall for them. After some confusion and misunderstandings, the deceptions are uncovered and the couples are reunited.
Così fan
tutte
Storyline
His Dorabella? Ferrando is outraged. She would never cheat on him! But his Fiordiligi, Guglielmo hastens to interject, certainly not him. The two friends agree: the »old philosopher's« assertion that there are no faithful women is inappropriate here.
Finally, a bet is made: The two women are to be put to a test of fidelity. If they allow themselves to be seduced, Don Alfonso wins a hundred zechins; if they remain faithful, the prize goes to Ferrando and Guglielmo. The starting signal for the famous game of disguise and seduction in the last collaboration between Lorenzo Da Ponte and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: the two friends pretend to go to war and return in disguise to offer themselves to the women as lovers. Partly on purpose. To break their resistance, Don Alfonso works with the chambermaid Despina, who not only tries to shake the women's morale, but also slips into various disguises herself to help the cause. The seduction succeeds in parts, even in a new combination of couples, and in the end Fiordiligi and Dorabella are even prepared to marry the two »new suitors«. When the charade is resolved, the »old philosopher« triumphs, and in the final chorus everyone vows to be guided by reason in the ups and downs of life.
The fact that Guglielmo and Ferrando are not supposed to seduce their own fiancée in the course of the »test of fidelity«, but that of the other, was a decision whose radical nature Mozart and Da Ponte must have been well aware of. The evidence suggests that they only made the decision at a late stage or that they changed the constellation several times during the compositional process: For example, the two seducers in Act 1 always address the women in pairs, and the scene instructions according to which Ferrando addresses himself »à Fiord.« and Guglielmo »à Dor.« are only found in later editions of the music, but not in the printed libretto or in Mozart's manuscript. The original Guglielmo aria »Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo«, replaced by »Non siate ritrosi« shortly before the premiere, shows the obvious change of perspective in a particularly interesting way: Guglielmo turns to Fiordiligi here and advises her to turn his gaze to Ferrando - »lui« - while Dorabella should concern herself with him. Not only did Mozart initially omit the personal pronoun »lui« in his score and then add it in a different ink; he actually entered the aria in his own catalog of works under the title »Rivolgete a me lo sguardo«. Where the two women were to turn was therefore evidently up for discussion for a long time.
