Così fan tutte

Warsaw Grand Theatre - Polish National Opera (Teatr Wielki), Warsaw, Poland

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Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Warsaw, Poland

Starts at: 19:00

Acts: 2

Sung in: Italian

Titles in: Polish,English

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

Cast

Performers

Soprano: Aleksandra Orłowska (Fiordiligi)

Chorus: Chorus of the Polish National Opera

Baritone: Hubert Zapiór (Guglielmo)

Orchestra: Orchestra of the Polish National Opera

Conductor: Yaroslav Shemet

Mezzo-Soprano: Zuzanna Nalewajek (Dorabella)

Tenor: Łukasz Kózka (Ferrando)

Creators

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Librettist: Lorenzo Da Ponte

Director: Wojciech Faruga

Overview

Do we really need the specter of catastrophe to make the effort to imagine and create other realities and other loves?

A frivolous comedy or an immoral farce? Controversies have accompanied Così fan tutte almost from the beginning of the opera's creation. The work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose premiere took place in 1790 in Vienna, was supposedly inspired by a real moral scandal in Paris at that time. Lorenzo da Ponte's libretto focuses on one theme. Don Alfonso challenges his younger colleagues: he makes a bet with Ferrand and Guglielmo that their lovers - Dorabella and Fiordiligi - will not be able to remain faithful when they unexpectedly leave, leaving their fiancées behind. The intrigue is made more credible by the fact that Austria was then involved in a war with Turkey. Despina's maid is also involved in the men's plot. After a wistful farewell to their loved ones, Ferrando and Guglielmo disguised themselves as Albanians to test female constancy.

Così fan tutte is an opera buffa that sparkles with wit but also strikes with lyrical tones. Da Ponte's story has been accused of artificiality, cynicism, and immorality, but paying attention to the eighteenth-century theatrical convention, it can be interpreted as an Enlightenment parable about human nature, in which: A happy man who takes everything from the right side [...] What usually makes others tears, for him it is a reason to laugh da Ponte ends his libretto. The composer creates fast-paced action, combining solo numbers, duets, and larger ensembles so that entire acts seem to be a dramatic uninterrupted whole. Thanks to the music, the paper characters at first glance turn into full-blooded heroes who are irresistible: the feisty Fiordiligi, the carefree Dorabella, the tender Ferrando, the impatient Guglielmo, the cynical Alfonso, and the temperamental Despina.

After the success of Piazzolla's Maria de Buenos Aires, Wojciech Faruga will present his new spectacle on the grand opera stage. The director decided to treat Mozart's work - Così fan tutte - seriously's not just a funny adventure of lovers, the comedy convention is just a smokescreen for real problems. The action takes place in America at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. The story revolves around a high-ranking middle-class family. The protagonists are Despina and veteran Don Alfonso. They look at each other in the vicissitudes of Dorabella, Fiordiliga, Guglielmo, and Ferrand. Parallel to the story of love, there is a war going on, i.e. a space of disintegration and negation of all orders other than those based on force. In our story, the war is not only the pretext that allows Ferrando and Guglielmo to initiate the remodeling, but it is also the experience with which Alfonso enters the story.

Ferrando and Guglielmo pretend to go to war, but in a moment they return in disguise - in Wojciech Faruga's staging, they are rebels liberated from conventions. Is it a real transformation or just a costume? The game that was supposed to be innocent fun turns into a dangerous game between the heroes, in which hidden fantasies come to the fore. The concept of reading Mozart's work through references to the panorama of a specific place and time opens the possibility of interpreting the phenomena of the present in the context of lost opportunities and unfinished moral and social revolutions of the previous century. How will this adventure end? Is it possible to return to the world of traditions and rules after this journey?

History

Premiere of this production: 26 January 1790, Burgtheater, Vienna

Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers), is an Italian-language opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte who also wrote Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni.

Synopsis

Mozart and Da Ponte use the theme of "fiancée swapping", which dates back to the 13th century; notable earlier versions are found in Boccaccio's Decameron and Shakespeare's play Cymbeline. Elements from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew are also present. Furthermore, it incorporates elements of the myth of Procris as found in Ovid's Metamorphoses, vii.

Place: Naples
Time: the 18th century

Act 1
Scene 1: A coffeehouse

In a cafe, Ferrando and Guglielmo (two officers) express certainty that their fiancées (Dorabella and Fiordiligi, respectively) will be eternally faithful. Don Alfonso expresses skepticism and claims that there is no such thing as a faithful woman. He lays a wager with the two officers, claiming he can prove in a day's time that those two, like all women, are fickle. The wager is accepted: the two officers will pretend to have been called off to war; soon thereafter they will return in disguise and each attempt to seduce the other's lover. The scene shifts to the two women, who are praising their men (duet: "Ah guarda sorella"—"Ah look sister"). Alfonso arrives to announce the bad news: the officers have been called off to war. Ferrando and Guglielmo arrive, brokenhearted, and bid farewell (quintet: "Sento, o Dio, che questo piede è restio"—"I feel, oh God, that my foot is reluctant"). As the boat with the men sails off to sea, Alfonso and the sisters wish them safe travel (trio: "Soave sia il vento"—"May the wind be gentle"). Alfonso, left alone, gloatingly predicts that the women (like all women) will prove unfaithful (arioso: "Oh, poverini, per femmina giocare cento zecchini?"—"Oh, poor little ones, to wager 100 sequins on a woman").

Scene 2: A room in the sisters' home

Despina, the maid, arrives and asks what is wrong. Dorabella bemoans the torment of having been left alone (aria: "Smanie implacabili"—"Torments implacable"). Despina mocks the sisters, advising them to take new lovers while their betrotheds are away (aria: "In uomini, in soldati, sperare fedeltà?"—"In men, in soldiers, you hope for faithfulness?"). After they leave, Alfonso arrives. He fears Despina will recognize the men through their disguises, so he bribes her into helping him to win the bet. The two men then arrive, dressed as mustachioed Albanians (sextet: "Alla bella Despinetta"—"Meet the pretty Despinetta"). The sisters enter and are alarmed by the presence of strange men in their home. The "Albanians" tell the sisters that they were led by love to them (the sisters). However, the sisters refuse to give in. Fiordiligi asks the "Albanians" to leave and pledges to remain faithful (aria: "Come scoglio"—"Like a rock"). The "Albanians" continue the attempt to win over the sisters' hearts, Guglielmo going so far as to point out all of his manly attributes (aria: "Non siate ritrosi"—"Don't be shy"), but to no avail. Ferrando, left alone and sensing victory, praises his love (aria: "Un'aura amorosa"—"A loving breath").

Scene 3: A garden

The sisters are still pining. Despina has asked Don Alfonso to let her take over the seduction plan. Suddenly, the "Albanians" burst in the scene and threaten to poison themselves if they are not allowed the chance to woo the sisters. As Alfonso tries to calm them, they drink the "poison" and pretend to pass out. Soon thereafter, a "doctor" (Despina in disguise) arrives on the scene and, using magnet therapy, is able to revive the "Albanians". The men, pretending to hallucinate, demand a kiss from Dorabella and Fiordiligi (whom the "Albanians" call goddesses) who stand before them. The sisters refuse, even as Alfonso and the doctor (Despina) urge them to acquiesce.

Act 2
Scene 1: The sisters' bedroom

Despina urges them to succumb to the "Albanians"' overtures (aria: "Una donna a quindici anni"—"A fifteen year old woman"). After she leaves, Dorabella confesses to Fiordiligi that she is tempted, and the two agree that a mere flirtation will do no harm and will help them pass the time while they wait for their lovers to return (duet: "Prenderò quel brunettino"—"I will take the brunette one").

Scene 2: The garden

Dorabella and the disguised Guglielmo pair off, as do the other two. The conversation is haltingly uncomfortable, and Ferrando departs with Fiordiligi. Now alone, Guglielmo attempts to woo Dorabella. She does not resist strongly, and soon she has given him a medallion (with Ferrando's portrait inside) in exchange for a heart-shaped locket (duet: "Il core vi dono"—"I give you my heart"). Ferrando is less successful with Fiordiligi (Ferrando's aria: "Ah, lo veggio"—"Ah, I see it" and Fiordiligi's aria: "Per pietà, ben mio, perdona"—"Please, my beloved, forgive"), so he is enraged when he later finds out from Guglielmo that the medallion with his portrait has been so quickly given away to a new lover. Guglielmo at first sympathises with Ferrando (aria: "Donne mie, la fate a tanti"—"My ladies, you do it to so many"), but then gloats, because his betrothed is faithful.

Scene 3: The sisters' room

Dorabella admits her indiscretion to Fiordiligi ("È amore un ladroncello"—"Love is a little thief"). Fiordiligi, upset by this development, decides to go to the army and find her betrothed. Before she can leave, though, Ferrando arrives and continues his attempted seduction. Fiordiligi finally succumbs and falls into his arms (duet: "Fra gli amplessi"—"In the embraces"). Guglielmo is distraught while Ferrando turns Guglielmo's earlier gloating back on him. Alfonso, winner of the wager, tells the men to forgive their fiancées. After all: "Così fan tutte"—"All women are like that".

Scene 4:

The scene begins as a double wedding for the sisters and their "Albanian" grooms. Despina, in disguise as a notary, presents the marriage contract, which all sign. Directly thereafter, military music is heard in the distance, indicating the return of the officers. Alfonso confirms the sisters' fears: Ferrando and Guglielmo are on their way to the house. The "Albanians" hurry off to hide (actually, to change out of their disguises). They return as the officers, professing their love. Alfonso drops the marriage contract in front of the officers, and, when they read it, they become enraged. They then depart and return moments later, half in Albanian disguise, half as officers. Despina has been revealed to be the notary, and the sisters realize they have been duped. All is ultimately forgiven, as the entire group praises the ability to accept life's unavoidable good times and bad times.

Venue Info

Warsaw Grand Theatre - Polish National Opera (Teatr Wielki) - Warsaw
plac Teatralny 1

The Grand Theatre in Warsaw is a theatre and opera complex situated on the historic Theatre Square in central Warsaw. The Warsaw Grand Theatre is home to the Polish National Ballet and is one of the largest theatrical venues in the world.

The Theatre was built on Theatre Square between 1825 and 1833, replacing the former building of Marywil, from Polish classicist designs by the Italian architect Antonio Corazzi of Livorno, to provide a new performance venue for existing opera, ballet and drama companies active in Warsaw. The building was remodeled several times and, in the period of Poland's political eclipse from 1795 to 1918, it performed an important cultural and political role in producing many works by Polish composers and choreographers.

It was in the new theatre that Stanisław Moniuszko's two best-known operas received their premieres: the complete version of Halka (1858), and The Haunted Manor (1865). After Frédéric Chopin, Moniuszko was the greatest figure in 19th-century Polish music, for in addition to producing his own works, he was director of the Warsaw Opera from 1858 until his death in 1872.

While director of the Grand Theatre, Moniuszko composed The Countess, Verbum Nobile, The Haunted Manor and Paria, and many songs that make up 12 Polish Songbooks.

Also, under Moniuszko's direction, the wooden Summer Theatre was built close by in the Saxon Garden. Summer performances were given annually, from the repertories of the Grand and Variety (Rozmaitości) theatres. Józef Szczublewski writes that during this time, even though the country had been partitioned out of political existence by its neighbors, the theatre flourished: "the ballet roused the admiration of foreign visitors; there was no equal troupe of comedians to be found between Warsaw and Paris, and Modrzejewska was an inspiration to drama."

The theatre presented operas by Władysław Żeleński, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Karol Szymanowski and other Polish composers, as well as ballet productions designed by such choreographers as Roman Turczynowicz, Piotr Zajlich and Feliks Parnell. At the same time, the repertoire included major world opera and ballet classics, performed by the most prominent Polish and foreign singers and dancers. It was also here that the Italian choreographer Virgilius Calori produced Pan Twardowski (1874), which (in the musical arrangement first of Adolf Sonnenfeld and then of Ludomir Różycki) has for years been part of the ballet company's repertoire.

During the 1939 battle of Warsaw, the Grand Theatre was bombed and almost completely destroyed, with only the classical façade surviving. During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 the Germans shot civilians in the burnt-out ruins. The plaque to the right of the main entrance commemorates the suffering and heroism of the victims of fascism.