Sunday 20 September 2009

Così fan tutte

Saturday evening is a perfect time not only for parting but for some higher entertainment as well. K and me, we have decided to visit St Gallen Theater to get to know another opera. Our choice was not made by chance. Big names always are though-provoking. Was he really so good creating this piece? Why is it so famous? Why this subject? Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (Thus Do They All, or The School For Lovers) K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte.

There are three Mozart's operas for which Da Ponte wrote the libretto. The other two Da Ponte-Mozart collaborations were Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni.Although it is commonly held that Così fan tutte was written and composed at the suggestion of the Emperor Joseph II, recent research does not prove this idea. There is evidence that Mozart's contemporary Antonio Salieri tried to set the libretto but left it unfinished. In 1994, John Rice uncovered two terzetti by Salieri in the Austrian National Library.

The title, Così fan tutte, literally means "Thus do all [women]" but it is often translated as "Women are like that". The words are sung by the three men in Act II, Scene xiii, just before the finale. Da Ponte had used the line "Così fan tutte le belle" earlier in Le nozze di Figaro (in Act I, Scene vii).

For me the most interestig aspect was how did he feel creating this opera. What is the feeling accompanying the birth of opera? Unfortunately, I may not get an answer. All in all, I enjoyed it a lot. Pity that the audience was mostly in their 50'ties, 60'ties, 70'ties. On our way back, we met youth near the Mc Donald's. They were younger than me, for sure, put with make-up thick as snow on Matterhorn how could you tell their age? How does Madonna feel when she creates new song? The same as Mozart?

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