8 months ago

Title: Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (Women are like that, or The School for Lovers)
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Lorenzo da Ponte
Premiere: 26 January 1790, Vienna (Burgtheater)
Language: Italian
Translation(s): English and Italian subtitles (click on CC for subtitles).
Act 2: https://rumble.com/v6j49bm-mozart-cos-fan-tutte-act-2-dessi-ziegler-corbelli-kundlak-muti-la-scala-198.html

Orchestra & Chorus of Teatro alla Scala
Chorus Master: Giulio Bertola
Conductor: Riccardo Muti

Costume & Settings: Mauro Pagano
Director: Michael Hampe
Recorded Live at Teatro alla Scala, 11 April 1989

Cast & Characters:
Daniela Dessì: Fiordiligi
Dorabella: Delores Ziegler
Guglielmo: Alessandro Corbelli
Ferrando: Jozef Kundlak
Despina: Adelina Scarabelli
Don Alfonso: Claudio Desderi

Mozart and Da Ponte use the theme of "fiancée swapping", which dates back to the 13th century; notable earlier versions are found in Boccaccio's Decameron and Shakespeare's play Cymbeline. Elements from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew are also present. Furthermore, it incorporates elements of the myth of Procris as found in Ovid's Metamorphoses, vii.

Synopsis: ACT I
Place: Naples
Time: the 18th century

Ferrando and Guglielmo are convinced of the fidelity of Fiordiligi and Dorabella, the two sisters to whom they are betrothed. Don Alfonso, on the other hand, claims all women are fickle and wagers that he can prove it. The young men agree to take Alfonso's test, and he tells the sisters that their husbands-to-be have been enlisted into the army. Once the men have departed, the sisters' maid Despina is persuaded by Alfonso to introduce two young Albanian friends (Ferrando and Guglielmo in disguise) to Fiordiligi and Dorabella. Each "stranger" then begins to court the other's fiancée, and they begin to make progress after pretending to take poison. Despina disguises herself as a doctor and successfully cures the Albanians.

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