COSÌ FAN TUTTE

It all starts with a bet. Prodded by the experienced Don Alfonso, Ferrando and Guglielmo want to test the fidelity of their fiancées Dorabella and Fiordiligi. So the two young men fake a call-up to war, return in disguise and then proceed to woo the other’s fiancée respectively. Soon they succumb to her powers of seduction, because "Così fan tutte" – that's how everyone (women?) does it. But now an emotional confusion unfolds. Who actually loves whom now?

It is hard to believe that Emperor Joseph II is said to have personally initiated this explosive material and that the work was premiered at Vienna's Burgtheater at the time of the French Revolution in 1790, of all times, when it demonstrates that even social institutions such as marriage are not sacrosanct.

With "Così fan tutte", Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte created a psychological experimental set-up about love, fidelity, hidden longings and disappointments that is still unparalleled today in terms of its sophistication. What begins as a seemingly cheerful game soon turns bitterly serious. Only the music dares to reveal the core of the game, bringing the true passions of the protagonists to light. But what can we learn today from this "school of lovers"? How to love? How to tame desire? Or even how (in)fidelity works? Let us surprise you! For the sensual and imaginative production by the successful director Tatjana Gürbaca returns to the repertoire of Oper Köln.