Così fan tutte, K. 588: Overture

Composer: MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus
  • Così fan tutte, ossia La sculoa degli amanti (All Women Do the Same, or The School for Lovers)1 is the third and last of the operas Mozart wrote with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (see also The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni). Unlike the other two operas, Così wasn’t adapted from a direct literary source, though it was partly inspired by 16th C. Spanish dramatist Tirso de Molina (whose work was also a source for Don Giovanni).2
  • Mozart was commissioned to compose this opera after a successful revival of his earlier da Ponte collaboration, The Marriage of Figaro.3
  • According to legend it was Emperor Joseph II who suggested the plot of Così to Mozart and da Ponte, based on an incident that actually occurred. (Unsubstantiated, but a good story)4
  • Fun fact: at least one of the rehearsals for Così took place at Mozart’s home.5
  • Judging from court theatre box office receipts, Così fan Tutte was the most successful opera of the season when it premiered in Vienna in 1790.6
  • Story: the plot concerns men who test their sweethearts’ fidelity by making romantic advances to them while in disguise.7
  • In this overture: musical foreshadowing and quotation!8
    • The introduction concludes with a double cadence which will reappear in the opera, sung to the words of the title. 
    • The Presto section of the overture quotes a line from an aria in The Marriage of Figaro in which Don Basilio says “Così fan tutte le belle” (“All the pretty girls are like that”)

Sources

  1. Julian Rushton, “Così fan tutte,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed November 27, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000003389. 
  2. Cliff Eisen, and Stanley Sadie, “Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 19, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278233. 
  3. Rushton, “Così fan tutte,” Grove Music Online.
  4. Eisen and Sadie, “Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus,” Grove Music Online.
  5. Ibid.
  6. Ibid.
  7.  Rushton, “Così fan tutte,” Grove Music Online.
  8. Ibid.

Cut IDs

49726