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COSiFANTUTTEMusic by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte

.YEARS

METROPOLITAN OPERARADIO BROADCASTS

The "Doctor" is called in to treat

the "Albanians" (Barbara Frittoli as

Fiordiligi, Matthew Poienzani as

Ferrando, Nuccia Focile as Despina,

Thomas Allen as Don Alfonso,

Mariusz Kwiecien as Guglielmo,

Maqdalena Kozen^ as Dorabella)

OPERA NEWS

Clockwise from top left: Guglielmo and Dorabella (Kwiecien, Ko^en^); Despina Jn disguise (Foclle);

Ferrando and Fiordiligi (Poienzani, Frittoli); the "Albanians" serenade the sisters:

the sisters and their officers {Kwiecien, KoienS, Poienzani, Trittoii)

JANUARY Z00&

FAN TUTTETHE CAST (in order of vocal appearance)Ferrando tenor, MATTHEW POLENZANlGuglielmo baritone. MARIUSZ KWIECIENDon Alfonso baritone, THOMAS ALLENFiordiligi sop., ALEXANDRA DESHORTIESDorabella mezzo, MAGDALFNA KOZENADespina soprano, NUCCIA FOCILE

Conducted by JAMES LEVINE

Production; Lesley KoenigSet and costume designer: Michael YearganLigbting designer: Duane SchulerStage director: Robin GuarinoChorus master: Raymond HugbesMusical preparation: Kevin Murphy,

Kathleen Kelly, Kazem Abdullah,Justina Lee

Assistant stage director: CJregory KellerHarpsichord continuo: Kevin MurphyItalian diction coach: Nico CastelPrompter: Kathleen Kelly

Continuo: Kevin Murpby, harpsicbordDavid Heiss, cello

Production a gift of Alberto VilarAdditional funding from I he Metropolitan

Opera Club, the Denenberg Foundationin honor of Dan Denenberg, The DuBoseand Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund,

THE STORY

ACT I. In eighteenth-century Naples, rhecynical Don Alfonso discusses womenwirh two young officers, Ferrando andGuglielmo. The gallants insist their sweet-hearrs are paragons ot virtue ("Fa miaDorabella") and accept Alfonso's her thathe can prove the ladies fickle if they do ashe says for twenty-four hours.

The sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabellacompare the merits of their respectivebeaux, Guglielmo and Ferrando, showingpictures they carry in their lockets ("Ah,guarda, sorella"). Alfonso brings sad news:the young men have been called to theirregiment. They appear, and the five makeelaborate farewells ("Sento, o Dio"). Assoldiers march by, Ferrando and Gugliel-mo fall in; Fiordiligi, Dorabella andAlfonso sorrowfully wish them a prosper-ous journey ("Soave sia il vento"). Alfon-so, alone, delivers one last jeer at women'sinconstancy.

The maid, Despina, advises her mistress-es to forget old lovers with the help of newones ("In uomini, in soldari"), but Dora-bella is outraged at her capricious approachto love ("Smanie implacabili"). When thesisters leave, Alfonso comes to bribeDespina to introduce two foreign friendsof his cu the ladies. Fiordiligi and Dorabel-

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel L. TedlowRevival a gift of The Metropolitan Opera

Club

THE SCENES Timings (ET)(Naples, 18th c.)

ACT I 1:30-3:03Sc. 1 A piazzaSc. 2 A terrace overlooking tbe seaSc. 3 Fiordiligi and Dorabelia's bome and

gardenACT II 3:34-5:06

Fiordiligi and Dorabellas bome andgarden, later that day

Announcer: Margaret JuntwaitAudio director: Jay David Saks

INTERMISSION FEATUREProducer: Michael Bronson TimingsToll Brothers-Metropolitan 3:03-3:34

Opera Quiz'Tbor Eckert questions Phillip Gainsley,

Paul Tbomason, Cori Ellison

'Send quiz questions to Opera Quiz, Box 805,F.D.R. Station. New York. NY 10150,or lo^ on to www.operamfo.org.

la, returning, are scandalized to see thestrangers, whom the)' do not recognize astheir lovers, heavily disguised as Albanians.The newcomers declare their admirationfor the ladies, but both repulse them, andFiordiligi likens her fidelity to a rock("Come scoglio"). Fhe men are thrilled,but Alfonso warns that the bet isn't wonyet. Ferrando blissfully looks forward tovictory and reunion with his love ("Un'au-ra amorosa"). When he is gone, Despinasuggests a plan to Alfonso to win the ladies'sympathy

Alone in their garden, the sisters lamentthe absence of their lovers. Suddenly the"Albanians" stagger in, pretending to havepoisoned themselves in despair over theirrejection. Alfonso and Despina run for adoctor. Meanwhile, the ladies begin towaver; pity for the strangers will be theirundoing. Despina returns, disguised as adoctor using Dr. Mesmer's invention, themagnet, to draw out the poison, and urg-ing the sisters to nurse the patients as theyrecover. The men revive ("Dove son?"), buttheir increased ardor alarms the women,who angrily refuse their demands for a kiss.

ACT Ii. Attending her mistresses,Despina lectures them on how to handlemen ("Una donna a quindici anni").Dorabella is easily persuaded that there is

no harm in a little flirtation, and surpris-ingly, Fiordiligi agrees. They decide whowill pair off with whom ("Prendero quelbrunettino").

The young men have arranged a sere-nade in the garden. Seeing their wagerthrough, Guglielmo ardently pursuesDorabella ("II core vi dono"), while Fer-rando woo.s Fiordiligi ("Ah, lo veggioquell'anima bella"); when he leaves, sheadmits he has touched her heart ("Perpieta"), hoping her absent lover will for-give her. When the men compare notes,Guglielmo is glad to see Fiordiligi appar-ently standing fast but Ferrando is dis-mayed that Dorabella has givenGuglielmo the locket containing his por-trait. Guglielmo decries the waywardnessof the fair sex ("Donne mie, la fate atanti!"). Left alone, Ferrando sighs that hestill loves Dorabella, though he feelsbetrayed ("Tradito, schernito").

Fiordiligi rebukes Dorabella for beingfickle, although she admits that in herheart she has succumbed to the stranger.Dorabella coaxes her to give way, sayinglove is a thief and people get robbed everyday ("E amore un ladronceilo"). Alone,Fiordiligi decides to drag her sister ofT tojoin their sweethearts at the front, butwhen Ferrando, pursuing the wager,enters and threatens suicide, Fiordiligigives in. Now Guglielmo is furious, butAlfonso counsels forgiveness; that's theway women are, he claims ("Tutti accusanle donne").

A double wedding is arranged betweenthe sisters and the "Albanians." Alfonsobrings in the notary — Despina in anoth-er disguise. Just as the ladies have signedthe marriage contract, familiar martialstrains outside herald the return of theformer lovers' regiment. In panic, the sis-ters push their intended husbands fromthe room and go more or less to pieceswhen the men reappear without their'Albanian'" mtifti. Ferrando and Gugliel-mo storm at the ladies when the marriagecontract is discovered. But Alfonsoexplains the deception, reasoning thattrue happiness lies not in romantic illu-sion but in accepting things as they are.Agreeing a trick can work both ways, thelovers are reconciled.

44 OPERA NEWS

THE BACKGROUND

The fifi:eenth of Mozart's operas, Cosi FanTune dates from the final period of hislite. If his alacrity in writing Cosi isexplainable in terms of his hectic activityduring this period, the scores sparkle andtechnical and expressive virtuosity seemmore remarkable in view of his failinghealth and many distractions. He usedmanuscript abbreviations — unusual forhim — and adapted music to the specificvocal strengths and weaknesses of thesoloists.

Legend has it that an actual Viennesescandal prompted Austrian EmperorJoseph II to commission Cosi Fan Tutte.To turn the story into a libretto, he choseLorenzo da Ponte, peripatetic scholar,entrepreneur and erstwhile crony ofGasanova. Da Ponte had suppliedMozart with texts for Figaro and DonGiovanni.

Probably no opera has been subjectedto such revision as Cosi Fan Tutte, for thenineteenth century found the story andlibretto unacceptable. Beethoven lament-ed that Mozart should have squanderedhis genius on such a trivial, immoralsubject.

One day before Mozart's thirty-fourthbirthday, Cosi Fan Tutte had its premiereat the Burgtheater in Vienna, January 26,1790. The work enjoyed repetitionsthrough August and then was dropped,not to be revived in Vienna during thecomposer's lifetime. He did witness it inPrague, and it soon reached Leipzig andDresden. The Metropolitan first per-formed it on March 24, 1922. The pre-sent production was unveiled on February8, 1996.

WHAT TO READ AND HEAR

For suggested reading on Mozart, see DieZauberflote What to Read and Hear, page39. Other valuable books includeEdmund J. Goehring's Three Modes ofPerception in Mozart (Cambridge) and theCost entry in the Cambridge OperaHandbook series. Jane Glover's MoztnisWomen (HarperCollins) offers fascinatingbackground on the ladies who were

important in the composer's onstage andoffstage lives.

On CD, James Levine leads the ViennaPhilharmonic in a fleet, elegant perfor-mance of an opera that is one of his spe-cialties (DG); his responsive cast includesKiri Te Kanawa, Ann Murray andThomas Hampson. The Met's currentCos! principals available on disc areThomas Allen, Don Alfonso on SimonRattle's reading for EMI, and NucciaFocile, who sings Despina on CharlesMackerras's Telarc Cosi.

Cos) is unusually well represented ondisc, especially when one considers itslong lack of currency in internationalhouses. An otitstanding Cwi of recentvintage is led by Rene Jacobs (Harmo-nia Mundi), who captures the opera'sbittersweet flavor to perfection. TheGlyndebourne Festival's happy associa-tion with Co.fi is well documented onCD; Fritz Busch's 1935 (Lyrica) and1951 (Guild) recordings preserve thevivid Fiordiligis of Ina Souez and SenaJurinac, respectively. Karl Bbhm'senduring affection for Cosi is welldemonstrated by his 1954 Salzburg per-formance (Orfeo d'Or) and his 1962studio recording (EMI). Herbert vonKarajan's dark-edged 1954 Cosi (EMI)has an especially splendid quartet oflovers: Leopold Simoneau, RolandoPanerai, Nan Merriman and ElisabethSchwarzkopf, caught at her vocal peak.Arnold Ostman's period-instrumentperformance from Drottningholm isavaiiahle in a mid-price set of all threeda Ponte operas (Decca).

On DVD, Allen is Guglielmo inAdrian Slack's 1975 Glyndebourne Cos}(Arthaus), conducted by JohnPritchard. Nikolaus Harnoncourt pacesCecilia Bartoli's Fiordiligi at ZurichOpera (Arthaus), Peter Sellars's eye-catching staging, which sets the actionin an American diner, is available fromUniversal. John Eliot Gardiner leads theEnglish Baroque Soloists in a lean,spicy Cos) from Theatre du Chatelet(Universal); those who want more Ital-ianate flavor will be happier with Ric-cardo Muti's La Scala performance(Image). Z

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June 24 - August 12, 2006

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Live Auditions OnlyNew York, NY - January 22Chicago, IL - January 27Cleveland, OH - January 28Chautauqua, NY - January 29

To apply online or for more info visit:

http://music.ciweb.orgYou may also wnle to:Sarah Malmoski,Coordinator of Studenl Services••mail: mu$ic@dweb.org(el ;16 357,6233

JANUARY 2006