ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
“Così fan tutte le belle! Non c’è alcuna novità” –
“Thus act all the beauties! No news there,” as the line
from Le nozze di Figaro, the first work written together
by Mozart and Da Ponte, goes. Four years later,
this allegation is put to the test: in their third and last
collaboration, Così fan tutte, an experiment is designed
to reveal the truth about women’s supposed lack
of faithfulness. An ambiguous game begins, exposing
deeper and deeper layers of feeling. The clear-eyed
view of the confusion of human relations opens up
an abyss that seems to go far beyond the framework
of a Dramma giocoso. This stage work – in some
ways Mozart’s most radical – is not so much a “School
for Lovers” as a continuous dissection of hearts. In the
tension between love and passion, security and selfnegation,
faithfulness and betrayal, the couples get lost
in emotional chaos. Mozart’s music traces the inner
contradictions of his figures without ever betraying
them, and suddenly makes us doubt our confident
belief that we can separate playfulness from
earnestness, dream from reality.
Andri Hardmeier