# On the subject of Cosi fan tutte



## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

After reading through many of the comments in the thread about this opera in TC's opera subforum, I thought I'd make Mozart's most divisive Da Ponte opera the subject of my first blog. I realize the time and effort to attempt to explain what makes this opera great would be wasted in that thread on many who seem determined to misunderstand the work, either because they've made no secret of disliking Mozart's music from the very beginning and would rather offer up boilerplate criticisms that have been addressed and refuted by multiple scholars for, or because they prefer to mindlessly utter their negative preoccupation with secco recitative without further thought, explication, or even once in a while, a little variation in their word choice. Whatever the case, I'm posting my thoughts here instead.


Anyways...

Cosi fan Tutte differs from the well-known late operas in that the characters don't strive for forgiveness, or some kind of spiritual or moral transcendence, but that only makes this opera different from them, not lesser. In terms of musical content, Cosi has fewer solo arias and more ensembles, which those who've come to be familiar with Mozart's operas know to be a good thing. Ensembles were easily Mozart's greatest strength and here, he refined this skill and took it to an even greater level, with some of the contrapuntally richest vocal writing Mozart wrote for any opera, the chromatic dissonance at times highlighting the emotional subtext and the counterpoint adding depth to the music as well as the plot. The canon from act II, for example, one of the greatest examples of Mozart's ability to combine ironic insight into his characters with assured technical mastery, three of the characters singing in counterpoint of how they want to forget everything that happened through drinking wine, while Guglielmo, separated from the others in music as well as sentiment, sings in private accompaniment that they should just drink poison and be done with the whole thing. There's also the comparatively wider array of orchestral color with more prominent solo parts, in arias, ensembles, and even recitative, for the violas, clarinets, and horns, and Mozart uses them for dramatic and occasionally atmospheric effect, as in the viola murmurs in the first act trio "soave sia il vento," the strings and offbeat syncopation of the woodwinds intentionally combined to mimic the sound of a heartbeat in Dorabella and Guglielmo's love duet, or the French horn that accompanies and supports Fiordiligi as a few notable examples.

As far as the libretto, it is in Mary hunter's opinion, far from the conventional objections levied against it, "both a brilliant display of wit and learning on its own terms and the perfect frame for Mozart’s music.” The current re-examination and re-evaluation by scholars provides multiple theories on how and why the libretto demands the "excess" of depth and beauty that Mozart provides with his music and how the libretto, in Burnham's words, provides Mozart with a "delicious irony with which to explore the paradoxical relationship of truth and illusion as it obtains in art and human consciousness." Rather than going against the libretto, the music complements the contrasting themes of superficiality and depth, as the characters grow from virtually indistinguishable and vapid to characters that seem to feel, think, and reveal their individual ideas about what is feigned and what is real, allowing for a work that is just as multifaceted in its beauty as in its irony.

David Cairns, in his book Mozart and His Operas, mentions that the structure of the story seems only at first glance to be a mockery of the characters "puppet passions" in a type of comic game, but this interpretation fails to see the whole picture. The scenes where the characters are in disguise, or the "false" scenes, are where the characters as they truly are become revealed: The men differentiate themselves as one is revealed to be "quick-witted, down to earth, sensual, egotistical and the other romantic, idealistic, a dreamer" made obvious in the latter's aria "Un aura amorosa" and elsewhere. Fiordiligi and Dorabella, in turn, develop from shallow, coquettish women fawning over their lovers to women with deep emotions. Just contrast the pomposity of Fiordiligi's "Come scoglio" where the virtuosic runs and leaps are merely comic and insincere, to the later aria "Per Pieta" where the same virtuosity is an expression of genuine emotion. Note Dorabella's change from the false and exaggerated protests of "smanie implacabili" to her later aria "E amore un ladroncello" which is the euphoric expression of one who's come to understand and accept her own feelings. The music, while engaging in playful mockery at times, transforms Da Ponte's libretto from a perceived shallow and cynical experiment into a study of the mind's tenuous grasp on the fickleness of the heart. It's no coincidence that, in Cairns's words, “the most heartfelt music in the opera occurred at the point where cynicism was supposedly to achieve its greatest triumph.”

In order to appreciate Cosi as a work of art equal to his other late operas, one must realize parody is only part of the story, and that the beauty of the music, whether it's engaging in humor or the expression of emotion, successfully provides depth and transforms the libretto into an opera that challenges as much as it rewards.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Cosi is a fascinating and layered work, for sure. It is funny and silly, but also moving and dramatic, and I agree that the emotional depth of Mozart's score is no mere addition to a superfluous libretto.

A fine post.


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## Dedalus (Jun 27, 2014)

I'm going to have to watch it again with all this in mind. Nice blog. When is the Idomeneo one coming?


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