Cosi fan tutte, K. 588

Composer: Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Librettist/Text Author: Ponte, Lorenzo da

Conductor: Honeck, Manfred

Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Chorus: Vienna State Opera Chorus

Chorus Master: Meister, Johannes

Despina: Donath, Helen

Don Alfonso: Allen, Thomas

Dorabella: Koch, Sophie

Ferrando: Mathey, Shawn

Fiordiligi: Martinez, Ana Maria

Guglielmo: Degout, Stephane

Set Designer: Herrmann, Karl-Ernst

Costume Designer: Herrmann, Karl-Ernst

Stage Director: Herrmann, Karl-Ernst

Stage Director: Herrmann, Ursel

Television Director: Grimm, Thomas

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Date of Production: 2006

Festival: Salzburg Festival

Venue: Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg

Playing Time: 03:04:00

Catalogue Number: A04001465

Libretto

Cosi fan tutte, K. 588 DE

Synopsis

Cosi fan tutte, K. 588

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Don Alfonso is convinced that the sweethearts of the two soldiers Ferrando and Guglielmo, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, would be unfaithful to them, given the opportunity. The two soldiers are convinced otherwise and bet with him. With the help of the young ladies' maid Despina, Alfonso devises an elaborate scheme to make the two young women believe their lovers have gone off to the army. Then he brings back the two young men, now disguised as "Albanians." Dorabella and Fiordiligi are smitten, and soon fall in love with the handsome strangers, but not with the "right" ones.

In their light-footed, witty and poetic staging, the Herrmanns took advantage of the wide stage of the Grosses Festspielhaus to create a luminous and elegantly minimalist landscape dotted with a few sparing but stylish props. The lovers are portrayed with verve and compelling emotional confusion by Ana María Martinez (Fiordiligi) and Sophie Koch (Dorabella) as the two sisters, and Stéphane Degout (Guglielmo) and Shawn Mathey (Ferrando) as the cocky soldiers who learn that lying isn't the best way to find out the truth. Thomas Allen (Don Alfonso) and the great Helen Donath (Despina) add their incomparable stage presence to the action. Conductor Manfred Honeck entices a wondrous delicacy and tenderness from the Vienna Philharmonic.