SLO AC Programme Booklet

The duo that gave us Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni join forces once again to
bring us a wonderfully foolish but philosophical fable about love and faithfulness,
mistaken identities and the fickle heart, Così fan tutte is an opera by Wolfgang
Amedeus Mozart, and libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. The title translates and
means “Women are like that”, which is quoted in the overture to the opera.
The plot takes place in the Bay of Naples in the 18th century. Deeply convinced of
women’s infidelity, the cynical Don Alfonso provokes his young friends Ferrando and
Guglielmo by impugning the constancy of their fiancées, sisters Dorabella and
Fiordiligi. To prove his assertion, Alfonso proposes the following plan to them: that they
tell their fiancées they are leaving for war, and then return dressed as Albanian soldiers,
ready to do anything to seduce the lonely fiancées.
Before they disguise themselves, the men pretend to sail off to war. And their fiancées
send them off, singing, Soave sia il vento, – "May the seas be calm and the winds
gentle." The sincerity of those wishes is made clear in Mozart’s music with its beautiful
orchestration and overlapping lines which paint a vivid picture of the rolling sea and
gentle winds as they bid farewell.