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Home , Arabella discography, Broken Vow, Charles Mackerras, Diana Montague, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Don Alfonso

CHAN 3152(3) 160 161

CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 160-161 2/3/08 14:29:36 Wolfgang Amadeus (1756 –1791) Così fan tutte or The School for Lovers

© Lebrecht Music & Arts Library Photo Music © Lebrecht Opera buffa in two acts Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, English version by Marmaduke Browne, adapted by John Cox

Fiordiligi ladies from Ferrara, Janice Watson soprano Dorabella } sisters, living in Naples mezzo-soprano Guglielmo, an officer, Fiordiligi’s lover Ferrando, an officer, Dorabella’s lover Despina, maidservant to Fiordiligi and Dorabella soprano Don Alfonso, an old philosopher Sir baritone

Geoffrey Mitchell Choir of the Age of Enlightenment Gareth Hancock assistant conductor Sir

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart



CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 2-3 2/3/08 14:28:24 COMPACT DISC ONE Time Page Time Page

1 Overture 4:05 [p. 96] 14 No 8, Chorus: ‘Oh, the soldier’s life for me! 1:30 [p.103] Act I Chorus 2 No 1, Trio: ‘Suspect Dorabella?’ 1:53 [p. 96] 15 Recitative: ‘My friends, the time is flying’ 0:34 [p.104] 3 Recitative: ‘Swords or pistols?’ 0:50 [p. 96] Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso 16 No 9, Quintet: ‘You’ll write long letters often’ 2:32 [p.104] 4 No 2, Trio: ‘Woman’s faith is like the phoenix’ 1:09 [p. 97] Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Chorus Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo 17 Recitative: ‘Are they gone?’ 0:35 [p.105] 5 Recitative: ‘A poetical fiction!’ 1:19 [p. 97] Dorabella, Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi 18 6 No 3, Trio: ‘I shall hire a band of players’ 2:21 [p. 99] No 10 Trio: ‘O wind gently blowing’ 2:43 [p.105] Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Don Alfonso 19 7 No 4, Duet: ‘This portrait alone is the face of Adonis’ 4:18 [p. 99] Recitative: ‘So far all’s going splendidly!’ 1:05 [p.106] Don Alfonso 8 Recitative: ‘I can’t think what’s the matter’ 0:44 [p.100] Fiordiligi, Dorabella 20 Recitative: ‘A hell of an existence’ 0:58 [p.106] Despina 9 Recitative: ‘Here they are’ 0:22 [p.100] Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Don Alfonso 21 ‘My ladies, here is your chocolate and biscuits’ 1:24 [p.106] Despina, Fiordiligi, Dorabella 10 No 5, Aria: ‘Let me try. My courage fails’ 0:38 [p.101] Don Alfonso 22 No 11, Aria: ‘Cease not, remorseless love’ 1:46 [p.107] Dorabella 11 Recitative: ‘Tell us, for pity’s sake’ 1:00 [p.101] Fiordiligi, Don Alfonso, Dorabella 23 Recitative: ‘Signora Dorabella, Signora Fiordiligi’ 1:36 [p.107] Despina, Dorabella, Fiordiligi 12 No 6, Quintet: ‘Courage fails me! For no evasion’ 4:07 [p.102] Guglielmo, Ferrando, Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, Dorabella 24 No 12, Aria: ‘In lovers and in soldiers’ 2:36 [p.109] Despina 13 Recitative: ‘It’s a comedy, charming!’ 0:33 [p.103] Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Fiordiligi, Dorabella 25 Recitative: ‘What a silence!’ 2:21 [p.109] Don Alfonso, Despina

 

CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 4-5 2/3/08 14:28:25 Time Page Time Page

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No 13, Sextet: ‘I’ve the honour to present you’ 4:18 [p.111] ‘Now, ladies, calm yourselves’ 8:50 [p120] Barda © Clive Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Despina, Fiordiligi, Dorabella Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Despina, Fiordiligi, Dorabella 27 Recitative: ‘What an outcry!’ 3:38 [p.112] Don Alfonso, Dorabella, Fiordiligi, Ferrando, Guglielmo Act II 28 No 14, Aria: ‘Like a fortress in ocean founded’ 4:28 [p.114] 4 Recitative: ‘Well, I decare, you are a funny pair of young ladies’ 2:26 [p.124] Fiordiligi Despina, Fiordiligi, Dorabella 29 Recitative: ‘Stay, I implore you!’ 0:43 [p.114] 5 No 19, Aria: ‘At fifteen a girl already must be truly wise’ 3:28 [p.125] Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Dorabella, Fiordiligi Despina 30 No 15, Aria: ‘O vision so charming’ 1:42 [p.115] 6 Recitative: ‘Well, sister! What do you think?’ 1:34 [p.126] Guglielmo Fiordiligi, Dorabella 31 No 16, Trio: ‘You seem delighted!’ 0:53 [p.115] 7 No 20, Duet: ‘I prefer the gentle dark one’ 2:53 [p.127] Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo Dorabella, Fiordiligi 32 Recitative: ‘When you’ve quite finished laughing’ 0:52 [p.116] 8 Recitative: ‘Come at once to the garden’ 0:22 [p.128] Don Alfonso, Guglielmo, Ferrando Don Alfonso, Dorabella 33 No 17, Aria: ‘Her eye so alluring’ 4:50 [p.116] 9 No 21, Duet and Chorus: ‘Gentle zephyr, softly sighing’ 3:03 [p.128] Ferrando Ferrando, Guglielmo, Chorus TT 64:43 10 Recitative: ‘What is this masquerading?’ 0:51 [p.128] Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Despina, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso COMPACT DISC TWO 11 No 22, Quartet: ‘Now give me your hand’ 2:34 [p.129] Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Despina 1 No 18, Finale: ‘Why has fate my life enshrouded’ 2:53 [p.117] 12 Recitative: ‘Isn’t the weather lovely!’ 2:14 [p.130] Fiordiligi, Dorabella Fiordiligi, Ferrando, Dorabella, Guglielmo 2 ‘To die is all I long for’ 4:55 [p.117] 13 No 23, Duet: ‘This heart that I give you’ 4:16 [p.132] Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Despina Guglielmo, Dorabella

 

CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 6-7 2/3/08 14:28:26 Time Page Time Page

14 Recitative: ‘Cruel one, would you leave me?’ 1:30 [p.133] 8 No 29, Duet: ‘All too slowly the hours are fleeting’ 5:11�������� [p.140] Ferrando, Fiordiligi Fiordiligi, Ferrando 15 Recitative: ‘He’s leaving. Listen!...’ 1:34 [p.134] 9 Recitative: ‘That’s enough for me!’ 1:40�������� [p.141] 16 No 25, Rondo: ‘Ah, my love, I pray forgive me’ 7:30 [p.134] Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Ferrando Fiordiligi 10 No 30, Aria: ‘Man accuses the woman’ 0:59�������� [p.142] TT 51:11 Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo 11 Recitative: ‘Well, gentlemen, you’ve won them’ 0:44�������� [p.142] Despina, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso COMPACT DISC THREE 12 No 31, Finale: ‘Come, my friends, no more delaying’ 1:47�������� [p.143] Despina, Chorus, Don Alfonso 1 Recitative: ‘We’ve done it!’ 3:26 [p.134] 13 ‘May the love, that has united then’ 4:03�������� [p.143] Ferrando, Guglielmo Chorus, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Fiordiligi, Dorabella 2 No 26, Aria: ‘Ladies have such variations’ 3:12�������� [p.136] 14 ‘Happy lovers! Fate conniving’ 3:29�������� [p.144] Guglielmo Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Despina, Chorus 3 Recitative: ‘Ah! My brain is distracted!’ 1:29�������� [p.137] 15 ‘Joy once more now our sorrow replaces’ 8:11�������� [p.146] 4 No 27, Cavatina: ‘Her treason is poison’ 2:02�������� [p.137] Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Despina Ferrando 16 ‘Happy is the man who calmly takes life strictly as he finds it’ :42�������� [p.149] 5 Recitative: ‘Now at last you are acting as a sane woman should’ :30�������� [p.137] Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Despina, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso Despina, Dorabella, Fiordiligi TT 44:40 6 No 28, Aria: ‘Young love is unrelenting’ 2:55�������� [p.138] Dorabella 7 Recitative: ‘All the world is conspiring’ 2:10�������� [p.138] Fiordiligi, Guglielmo, Despina, Don Alfonso

 

CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 8-9 2/3/08 14:28:26 CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 10-11 On session: Toby Spence

© Catherine Ashmore On session: Christopher Maltman 2/3/08 14:28:29 The title Così fan tutte is almost impossible to translate without obscuring the universal experience so lightly but profoundly expressed in Mozart’s depiction of human love and frailty. And who better to reveal all the irony, wit and pathos of Mozart’s mercurial score than Sir Charles Mackerras – a great Mozartian – in harness with the wonderful musicians of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and a great cast. Prepare to be seduced!

Sir Peter Moores, CBE, DL April 2008

Sir Peter Moores with a portrait of Admiral Lord Nelson by Lemuel Francis Abbott, acquired for Compton Verney © Lyndon Parker 12 13

CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 12-13 2/3/08 14:28:31 famously starting with , considered epic, Ariosto’s Orlando furioso. From it da ‘all the girls act like this’ the libretto both immoral and trivial and it was Ponte drew names of characters and dramatic inevitably bowdlerised, or changed wholesale, themes and – in a kind of spot-the-quote game Cosi fan tutte – ‘all women act like this’ – was Burgtheater on January 26, 1790 and was for performance. Mozart was considered to that many of his more sophisticated Viennese conceived at relative leisure (but composed in (despite frequent comments to the contrary) have committed a grievous error of judgement spectators would have enjoyed playing – a hurry) during 1789 to an existing libretto by a fair success. The premiere was the most in setting such a subject to his ‘divine’ music. borrowings or adaptations of whole images and the Abbé Lorenzo da Ponte, the Vienna court heavily attended opera performance of the The tide turned from 1897 onwards when a phrases. He freely plundered his own libretti opera’s official poet and Mozart’s collaborator 1789/90 season and the diary comments and sequence of major conductors (and composers) Il finto cieco and Una cosa rara. He was also on on and . reviews that survive were favourable. The work returned to what Mozart and da Ponte actually well-trodden dramatic ground with the central The cast was hand-picked by its creators. The was given four more times before the death wrote – in a version prepared theme of lovers testing each others’ fidelity librettist’s current mistress (and as a cleric a few weeks later of the Emperor, Mozart’s by Hermann Levi (Wagner’s first by the use of disguise; examples went back in forbidden to marry, da Ponte had many) inconsistent patron Joseph II. This was a conductor) in , Gustav at the time to Zeus in Greek mythology, to ’s Adriana Ferraresi del Bene was Fiordiligi. He double stroke of bad luck for the composer – opera’s original home in Vienna, Metamorphoses or to the more recent couples called her his ‘misfortune’, was very frank the theatres were closed for a number of weeks Sir in London, and Fritz on trial in ’s A Midsummer Night’s about her lack of obvious attractions, but of court mourning just as Così was getting into Busch – in a 1934 staging by at the Dream and Marivaux’s La Dispute (1744, and a liked her eyes and mouth. The Don Alfonso its stride, and the new Emperor, Leopold II, newly opened Festival which success in Vienna). was Mozart’s first Dr Bartolo/Antonio and cared little for Mozart, for da Ponte (who was led to the opera’s first-ever recording. So, nothing too new or frightening there. Commendatore/Masetto, the Despina his first fired), for their chosen casts (some of them were So what was it that was considered so Yet court composer Antonio Salieri – the Cherubino, and the Guglielmo his first Figaro. also dismissed) or, indeed, for so-called opera shocking, immoral or trivial in the opera’s text? first musician to whom da Ponte offered his As Mozart had written music elsewhere for the buffa (‘non-tragic opera’) in general. Under the Da Ponte’s poem seemed to be one of his most libretto – abandoned composition as early as other singers in the cast, he knew all the voices circumstances it was quite an achievement that ‘original’, rather than the straight translation the second men’s Trio in Act I, declaring the well and worked to their strengths (a vocally five further performances – Mozart himself of a contemporary play (as was the case with text ‘unworthy of musical invention’. wide-ranging two-tempo display aria, ‘Ah, conducted at least the last one – were given Figaro) or the extended reworking of another’s (A glimpse at the surviving sketches shows my love, I pray forgive me’ for Fiordiligi) and during that summer. contemporary libretto (Giovanni) which were how his setting almost wholly misses the current limitations (only the briefest of arias After that, however, Così became something the stock-in-trade of the practising eighteenth- boastful ironies of the young officers’ for Alfonso). of a Cinderella among Mozart’s mature output. century librettist. In fact, the Così libretto championing of their ladies to Alfonso.) And The new opera, with a surprising number The next Viennese performance was not until (knowingly subtitled La scuola degli amanti, Salieri – not as much of a nemesis for Mozart of cuts that were probably designed to spare 1794. Throughout much of the nineteenth ‘The School for Lovers’) was heavily dependent as twentieth-century theatre and film has rehearsal time, was premiered at Vienna’s century commentators and impresarios, on a then widely known sixteenth-century liked to imagine – was the composer among

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 14-15 2/3/08 14:28:31 da Ponte’s regular collaborators whose wide Funny outfits, hairy features, sure they must of changes to the libretto submitted to Salieri the text and emotions with illustrative reading and literary savoir-faire led him to be foreign creatures, I’d say Turkish at a were made when the project became Mozart’s, instrumental detail that might be termed esteem the Italian higher even than Mozart. guess. Slovakish? Turkish?’. Despina indeed presumably at his suggestion. pre-Romantic, Mozart placed an almost Surely he most of all should have appreciated is almost a walking mouthpiece for both Then came directly sexual imagery. unheard of amount of the story in ensemble da Ponte’s classical references? the contemporary man on the street and for Originally the opera was set in Trieste. The writing, another move towards the naturalistic, Yet it seems that a situation arose like the Mozart’s and da Ponte’s social observations. move to Naples was made undoubtedly to through-composed operatic narration he had one which was to see the good citizens of And it’s her idea for the Act I doctor ‘cure’ of pick up on that city’s reputation as a decadent, pioneered in the Finale of Act II of Figaro. mid-nineteenth-century Venice (and their the poison which literally brings onstage the Southern gilded palace of sin and the erupting Nowadays we find compelling psychological censors) forcing to have La traviata, magnet(ism) of Franz Anton Mesmer who, in presence (glimpsed in the scenery) of the depth in what our forefathers considered his contemporary drama of Parisian kept real life, was a friend and regular correspondent volcano Mount Vesuvius, as blatantly obvious immoral and called trivial. Così can seem now women, premiered in costumes and scenery of Mozart and his family. This theatre of the an image of arousal then as now. And when more profound and universal a drama than from Louis XIV’s time. Salieri, and many burlesque – almost Mozart looking forward Fiordiligi, running away from (the disguised) either Figaro or Giovanni because it does not subsequent performers, promoters and to his ‘popular’ musical, – Ferrando’s attentions, tells us that she has seen depend on a specific political/social context spectators, were upset about Così’s very modern may further have confused those expecting ‘a basilisk, a hydra, a vicious scorpion’, she’s (like the aristocrat/servant quarrels of the take on sexuality, character and what could be more restrained opera buffa from a ‘classical’ probably not describing some mythological other da Ponte operas), but on the context used and discussed onstage. Firstly there were composer. oriental painting. Nor does the sex seem to of humanity. The couples of the opera are the obvious contemporary references. Despina Next came the in-jokes. The work’s very stop at innuendo. The music and imagery of, not just involved in sexual politics but in the is given a whole aria in Act I (‘In lovers and in main title is a quotation from a previous for example, Dorabella’s Act II ‘Young love whole question of honesty to themselves and to soldiers for constancy you look’) to lampoon Mozart/da Ponte work – ‘così fan tutte le is unrelenting’ aria, is surely the excitement, others. It’s almost like psychoanalysis in Vienna the military – of which 1790 Vienna was full – belle’, ‘all the girls act like this’ from The and testimony, of someone’s first experience of 100 years before Freud. What is Alfonso’s with their ‘kiss ‘em and leave ‘em’ morality. Marriage of Figaro – while the dramatis sexual love. motivation for his challenge to Ferrando The men’s ‘Albanian’ disguises evoke Austria’s personae description of the sisters Fiordiligi ‘I swear to you that Figaro and Giovanni are and Guglielmo? Do the young officers really current wars against ‘Eastern’ powers, especially and Dorabella as ‘ladies of Ferrara’ references the work of an amateur compared to Così’, believe their boasts about their girls (whom Turkey, always the butt of crude Viennese both the singer Adriana Ferraresi del Bene wrote the experienced Mozart interpreter and they hardly seem to know), or are they actually theatrical humour (like Mozart’s own Seraglio and the then popular belief that ladies from French composer Reynaldo Hahn. In addition looking to find out if the opposite is true? opera). Indeed Despina’s repeated reaction to that town were of easy virtue. And did the to the verbal and psychological content of da Is their disguise deliberately excessive and the disguised lovers’ first appearance is typical fact of their being sisters suggest Mozart’s own Ponte’s libretto the quiet radicalism of Mozart’s unconvincing? of what one might call the tabloid comments wooing of the Weber girls, rejected by Aloysia musical setting would hardly have pleased In the hundred different ways in which of the day – ‘Lord preserve us, how pecular! then accepted by Constanze? Quite a number conservative spirits. Apart from reflecting Così fan tutte has been staged since its entrance

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 16-17 2/3/08 14:28:32 into the regular repertoire in the 1950s, and clever, remained used and exploited at my invention and completed my intention: I the subject of opera might be deemed a bit interpretations have focussed particularly on the bottom of the heap. On the other hand, desired but to persuade them nothing’s perfect unsuitable for the attention of a man of the the exact motivations of the characters. Is the women in these operas drive the drama here below!... Now you all must laugh it off, cloth, Browne’s rhymes are often extremely Alfonso a heartless, chauvinistic cynic, out more actively than in most opera buffa, and the for there is nothing you can do.’ Ferrando and witty, even if they occasionally veer quite a to make mischief to compensate for some charge of sexism routinely laid at Così’s door Guglielmo accept their girls’ intentions to be long way from da Ponte’s original. Consider mal d’amour of his own, or is he a Prospero- is rebuffed somewhat by the liberal manner faithful, but only with the caveat ‘I’ll believe the first utterance of the love-sick girls as they like educator of young peoples’ essential life in which Fiordiligi and Dorabella come to the word you’ve spoken, to the proof no more gaze in rapture at the portraits of their lovers: experiences? Is Despina a cynical conspirator embrace their new lovers who, in their Albanian I’ll go.’ Despina, hardly comprehending what ‘This portrait alone is bought by Alfonso’s purse, a realist if disguises, represent quite a walk on the wild has happened, threatens a kind of revenge – The face of Adonis.’ brutally frank tutor to the girls in sexuality, side for such genteel middle-class ladies. ‘Take good care if fooling others, someone Answered by: or a working-class stirrer (like Figaro and But what about the ending? Is it really else may well fool you.’ Only then do the ‘Ah, then it must follow Leporello) of pampered middle- and upper- possible that, after such pain, such direct actors step out of character to offer abstract, That this is Apollo.’ class assumptions? And does she know that the contact with another(‘s) partner the status quo enlightened advice to the audience: ‘Happy Or take Guglielmo’s diatribe against women. ‘Albanians’ are really Ferrando and Guglielmo, can be restored? Haven’t the more buffo, more is the man who calmly takes life strictly as he Where da Ponte repeats ‘la fate a tanti e or is she as shocked by their final revelation as superficial couple – Dorabella, Guglielmo – finds it and with humour and only tanti’ over and over, Browne cleverly varies her charges are, or by the fact that she’s been discovered each other as surely as the more lets sweet reason be his guide.’ it each time: ‘Ladies have such variations, taken for a massive ride by everyone? All these poetic, more thoughtful (and higher-voiced) permutations, fluctuations’, ‘Alas their © 2008 Mike Ashman options are wholly possible, and playable – Fiordiligi and Ferrando? For the eighteenth vacillations, complications’, ‘the ladies’ even within a strictly literal view of text and century, and for Mozart and da Ponte, this was retractions, abjurations’, ‘abberations, music. simply not a problem. The ‘walk on the wild A note from the conductor hesitations’ etc. Although written about a The ideas of the French Revolution, actually side’ had happened within the classical unities In 1890 Così fan tutte under the title of School century later than da Ponte, Browne’s version in progress as the opera was premiered, had a of time (one day from dawn to dusk) and place for Lovers, was performed by students of does seem to have a flavour of Pope or definite effect onCosì , although less obvious (pace the opening coffee house scene where the seven-year-old Sheridan. Perhaps his quaintest rhyme is than on Figaro or even on Giovanni. On the the men make their bet), and simply came to at the , London. The RCM Don Alfonso’s famous summing up: negative side, the reforms of the Third Estate an end at the end of the play. But Mozart and Direcor, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, was the ‘Spite of wisdom, folly, plainness or beauty, were never to reach the Austrian Empire in any da Ponte, in keeping with their new realism conductor, and a new English translation was every woman’s the same, Così fan tutte.’ literal form. The workers stayed the workers, that upset and challenged 100 years’ worth of made for this centenary performance by the (rhyming ‘beauty’ with ‘tutte’ not ‘tutti’!) (even when Napoleon entered Vienna) and commentators, cannot let quite their play end Rev Marmaduke E. Browne. Browne was a The Browne translation was still used at the Despinas of this world, however witty there. Alfonso concludes ‘True the plot was choirmaster and church organist and although Sadler’s Wells into the 1960s despite the

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 18-19 2/3/08 14:28:32 general use of E.J. Dent’s new translations of thus preserving the status quo of two arias per and cadenzas, particularly in Fiordiligi’s arias, tells them that their officers are both under may well-known operas. When I conducted character as in most comic operas of the period. have been used in this recording. orders for ‘active service’ and must leave ‘this Così at the in John Cox’s Similarly, small cuts have traditionally been morning’. 12 – 13 He permits a brief farewell, delightful production in 1980 we still used made in the duet for Ferrando and Fiordiligi, © 2008 Sir Charles Mackerras laughing at the girls’ excessive anguish but Browne’s version with many revisions by Cox, the chorus in the Act II finale and in many of counselling the men that the game has only just mainly to bring the English text nearer to the recitatives. Although present day recordings Synopsis begun. 14 – 17 Soldiers arrive to take Ferrando da Ponte’s meaning and the musical rhythms tend to present an opera complete without any and Guglielmo away in a boat; 18 – 19 the girls nearer to Mozart’s original. It is this version of cuts, I chose to record this English version of COMPACT DISC ONE and Don Alfonso wish them a safe journey Browne’s text which is used in this recording. Così fan tutte with the traditional cuts, thus (‘O wind gently blowing’). As a matter of fact, that 1890 student making it closer to a staged performance. 1 Overture production was not the first to be done in As regards the style of the performance on Act I A pretty room in the sisters’ house English. Così fan tutte, first heard in London the recording, it is indeed a pleasure having the A coffee shop 20 – 21 Despina, the sisters’ chambermaid, in 1811, was performed at the Royal English Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment lending 2 – 4 Two young officers, Ferrando and laments her ‘hell of an existence’ in service. Opera as Tit for Tat or The Tables Turned! in its expertise in tonal colour, phrasing and Guglielmo, boast to their older friend Don 22 – 24 When Dorabella talks of breathing her 1828. One wonders what that version, altered rhythmic impulse to Mozart’s wonderful score. Alfonso about the fidelity of their loves, the last ‘in the toils of love’, Despina advises her and adapted from Così fan tutte, could have Naturally, our singers all make extensive use of sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella. 5 – 6 Don sorrowing mistresses to amuse themselves while been like, especially as there was a second piece, the vocal appoggiatura, that inflexion whereby Alfonso bets them 100 guineas that he will be their lovers are away, mocking their belief in The Bottle Imp! (founded on a popular German the first of two or three syllables in a words able to prove to them that very day that their finding ‘constancy’ in ‘lovers and in soldiers’. legend) on the bill as well! are sung a note higher (or lower) than written. ladies are just like all others – temperamentally The girls flee in horror at the idea. At its first performance in Vienna in1 790, This helps to point the text and give it greater unfaithful. They accept the wager and promise, Mozart allowed many passages to be omitted accentuation flow. on their honour as soldiers, to do everything 25 Despina is not pleased to see her old from the score, for what reason we do not Mozart’s singers for Così fan tutte were all Don Alfonso asks them and not to tell their acquaintance Don Alfonso, but he buys her know, since some truly sublime moments quite eminent and would have automatically sweethearts. help in introducing the girls to alternative were cut, notably the canon quartet near sung cadenzas at fermatas and added the suitors. 26 Guglielmo and Ferrando arrive the beginning of the second finale. Today’s occasional decoration to the vocal lines in arias. A garden by the seashore disguised (Despina wonders if they are performances do not usually make such drastic In the case of this opera, we are lucky that 7 – 8 Fiordiligi and Dorabella are sighing ‘Turkish’ or ‘Slovakish’) and declare their exisions, but traditionally two numbers have a late eighteenth-century ornamented version over pictures of their men, although Fiordiligi passionate love for Fiordiligi and Dorabella. been omitted, a duet for the men in Act I, is still preserved in the Fürstenberg Library at confesses to ‘a silly desire for an adventure’. 9 27 – 30 To help their pleading, Don Alfonso and a third aria for Ferrando, ‘Ah lo veggio’, Donaueschingen. Several of these ornaments – 11 Don Alfonso enters, feigning distress, and pretends that they are old friends of his, but

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 20-21 2/3/08 14:28:33 the sisters resist all blandishments, especially ‘seeking diversion to ward off melancholy’. A room in the sisters’ house and Guglielmo have returned from the Fiordiligi who stands ‘like a fortress’. 31 – 33 7 – 8 Dorabella, Ferrando’s lady, chooses to 5 Despina congratulates Dorabella for war. The ‘Albanians’ and the notary hide, Together with Don Alfonso the men laugh at flirt with ‘the gentle dark one’ (Guglielmo) and ‘acting as a sane woman should do’; 6 15 then Ferrando and Guglielmo appear their apparent victory (‘her eye so alluring, my Fiordiligi with ‘the fair one’ (Ferrando). ‘young love is unrelenting’ admits Dorabella. in uniform. They are puzzled by the girls’ hope reassuring’). 7 Fiordiligi curses them both as ‘all the reactions – ‘silent’ and ‘bedewed with a tear’ In the garden by the seashore world is conspiring to compel me to yield’. – until they discover the notary (Despina COMPACT DISC TWO 9 – 11 An al fresco serenade for the sisters Ordering Despina to fetch their officers’ spare immediately reveals it’s actually her) and has been arranged by their new suitors. After uniforms, she resolves that she and Dorabella the marriage contract. They rush out for A pretty garden with two grassy banks it is over Despina and Don Alfonso leave the will go disguised to the battlefield to find ‘vengeance’ on their ‘hateful rivals’, returning 1 – 2 The ‘Albanians’ now pretend to swallow four to their own devices. 12 Guglielmo flirts their true loves. 8 But Ferrando, egged on only half-disguised to reveal the whole plot arsenic in their desperation to be loved by the with Dorabella, offering her a locket which, by Guglielmo and Don Alfonso, makes a and to burlesque their antics with Despina. sisters; Don Alfonso and Despina encourage to his horror and fascination, she accepts. supreme and successful last effort to conquer She is as surprised and horrified as the sisters. the girls to ‘tenderly support’ the dying men He then succeeds in removing her own ‘fortress’ Fiordiligi. ‘Oh God, I weaken, do Don Alfonso excuses his actions with the – and go off in search of a doctor. Just as the locket, with its portrait of Ferrando. with me as you desire’, she tells him. claim that ‘I desired but to persuade them sisters admit their hearts are moved to ‘pity’, 13 Strongly attracted to each other, the couple nothing’s perfect here below’. He encourages 3 the doctor (Despina in disguise, recognised accept the ‘exquisite pain’ ‘to pleasure inviting’. 9 – 11 Don Alfonso encourages the losers, a general reconciliation: the girls claim their by the men but not the girls) arrives, boasting 14 – 16 Fiordiligi, despite a similar sexual while they are still under pledge to him, to penitence will be ‘far more faithful than vows of linguistic skills and proposing a cure attraction to Ferrando, resists him – for the ‘marry’ their new loves. He has them repeat I’ve broken’, while the boys promise ‘to the invented by ‘Dr Mesmer’. The magnet, and moment – and calls on the absent Guglielmo the words of his cautionary tale: ‘Così fan proof no more I’ll go’. 16 All praise ‘the man much physical contact from the girls, restores to forgive her inner desires (‘Ah, my love, I tutte’ (‘they all act like this’). who calmly takes life strictly as he finds it’. the Albanians to health, but Fiordiligi and pray forgive me’). © 2008 Mike Ashman Dorabella are still not ready to yield. A brilliantly lit hall COMPACT DISC THREE 12 – 13 The sisters’ wedding to their new Act II lovers is richly celebrated. 14 A notary Janice Watson (Fiordiligi) studied at the A room in the sisters’ house 1 – 4 The men compare notes: an over- (Despina in another disguise) arrives to Guildhall School of Music and Drama and first 4 Further teased and then persuaded by confident Guglielmo hears of Fiordiligi’s conduct the official ceremony, naming came to prominence as winner of the Kathleen Despina ( 5 – 6 ‘at fifteen a girl already must fidelity, then shows Ferrando Dorabella’s the ‘Albanians’ as Leander and Philander. Ferrier memorial award. be truly wise and worldly’), the sisters decide locket. Don Alfonso proposes another assault The girls sign but a drum roll and soldiers’ Operatic roles have included Pamina that there is nothing to be ashamed of in on Fiordiligi’s virtue. voices interrupt proceedings: Ferrando (The Magic Flute) with the Paris Opéra;

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 22-23 2/3/08 14:28:34 Vitellia (La clemenza di Concert appearances include performances Her repertory includes the major roles Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Octavian in Tito) for the Flanders under conductors such as Sir Roger for mezzo-soprano in operas by Mozart, (highlights), Sandman Opera; Strauss’ Norrington, André Previn, Michael Tilson- , Strauss, Rossini, and , (Hansel and Gretel ), , and two recital , , Thomas, Sir , , and engagements have included Benvenuto discs of Great Operatic Arias. and Mozart’s Frans Brüggen, Sir and Cellini with Rome Opera; Iphigénie en Tauride Elettra () at . in Buenos Aires, Madrid and with Welsh Winner of the Lieder the Santa Fe Festival; For Chandos Janice Watson has recorded National Opera; , Cherubino Prize at the 1997 Daphne, Arabella and the title role in Jenu˚fa (as part of the Opera (Le nozze di Figaro) and Andromaca in Biss Levon Cardiff Singer of the Eva (Die Meistersinger in English series), Poulenc’s Gloria, Howells’ Rossini’s Ermione at Glyndebourne; Isolier World Competition, von Nürnberg) with Missa Sabrinensis, and Ellen Orford in () in Lausanne, Rome and Christopher Maltman the Opera; Pamina, Countess the Grammy Award-winning recording of Glyndebourne; Proserpina in Monteverdi’s (Guglielmo) read Almaviva (The Marriage of Figaro) and . Orfeo in Amsterdam; biochemistry at Warwick Arabella at the ; Ellen in Lisbon; Marguerite (La Damnation de University and studied Orford (Peter Grimes) at the Vienna State Diana Montague Faust) in Vienna and Geneva; Minerva singing at , Netherlands Opera and the Royal (Dorabella) was born (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria) in Amsterdam and Academy of Music. Opera House, Covent Garden; Britten’s in Winchester and ; Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the He recently made his debut at the at the ; Countess studied at the Royal Covent Garden, Junon , New York as Harlekin Almaviva and Salome for the Deutsche Northern College in ’s Platée with The Royal Opera (Ariadne auf Naxos). At the Royal Opera Staatsoper, Berlin; Micaëla (Carmen) at of Music. Since her at the Edinburgh Festival and in London, House, Covent Garden, he created the role of both the and the debut as Zerlina and Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) at English Sebastian in the world premiere of Thomas Metropolitan Opera, and both Countess with Glyndebourne National Opera, in Bilbao and at the Teatro Adès’ and has also sung Guglielmo Almaviva and Liù at the Metropolitan Opera. Touring Opera she Real in Madrid; (Così fan tutte), Ramiro (L’Heure espagnole), She has been a regular guest with both has appeared at Diana Montague’s many recordings include Malatesta (), Nardo (La finta (most recently as the the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, giardiniera) and Papageno (The Magic Flute). Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, and Madam the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Norma, Iphigénie en Tauride; for Opera Rara His roles at the Glyndebourne Festival include Butterfly) and (most Théâtre de in Brussels, the Opéra Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, Zoraida di Granata Ned Keene (Peter Grimes), Sid (Albert Herring), recently as Strauss’ Ariadne). She sang the title national de Paris-Bastille, Teatro Colón in and Il crociato in Egitto; and, as part of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Achilla (Giulio role in Katya Kabanova both for the Royal Buenos Aires and the Bayreuth and Salzburg Chandos’ Opera in English series, Cherubino Cesare) and Papageno. At the Bayerische Opera and in her debut at , Milan. Festivals. (The Marriage of Figaro), Idamante (Idomeneo), Staatsoper, Munich, he has sung Tarquinius

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 24-25 2/3/08 14:28:36 (The Rape of Lucretia), Guglielmo, Marcello (Ferrando) studied at with English National Opera (most recently Award for ‘Best-selling Classical Artist of the (La Bohème) and Albert (). An the Opera School of in La Belle Hélène), the Paris Opéra (making Year’. Her television series The Lesley Garrett acclaimed , he has sung the role the Guildhall School his role debut as Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Show featured guest artists such as Marcello at Welsh National Opera, Teatro Regio in of Music and Drama. Progress), and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Alvarez, , Alison Moyet, Michael Turin, Seattle and in Munich. Other opera Toby Spence made where he has appeared most recently in Ball, Maxim Vengerov and Joshua Bell, Renée appearances include Don Giovanni at The his operatic debut as La Cenerentola. Fleming, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Dmitri Sage, Gateshead in a new production directed Idamante (Idomeneo) Toby Spence has appeared in concert with the Hvorostovsky, Pellow, Michel Legrand by Sir Thomas Allen; Count Almaviva for Welsh National London Symphony Orchestra, the Monteverdi and Elaine Paige. She was also the subject of a (Le nozze di Figaro) in Vienna; Papageno in Opera, and has since Choir and Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, South Bank Show and her music programmes San Francisco; Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) sung the role with the Berlin Philharmonic, and the San Francisco continued on the BBC with The Singer. at the Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin and in Scottish Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. Symphony, under conductors such as Sir Simon Lesley Garrett’s operatic career included San Diego; Aeneas () in In Munich, he has also sung Ferrando, Ottavio, Rattle, , Michael Tilson- early engagements at the Wexford Festival, Vienna; Tarquinius at the Aldeburgh Festival Telemaco (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), and Acis Thomas, Valéry Gergiev and . Welsh National Opera, , and and for English National Opera; and at the (Acis and Galatea). For the Monnaie, Brussels Recital work has taken him to the Edinburgh Glyndebourne Festival Opera before joining 2008 he sings the title role he has sung Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) under Festival and, in London, both LSO St Lukes English National Opera in 1984. During her in Don Giovanni. Robertson and David (Die Meistersinger and the . time with English National Opera she starred In concert he has worked with conductors von Nürnberg) under Antonio Pappano. He in many productions and won critical acclaim such as Christoph von Dohnányi, John has appeared with the (in Lesley Garrett, CBE for her portrayals of both comic and serious Adams, Sir , Sir Simon Alcina), the Aix-en-Provence Festival (Hyllas (Despina), is Britain’s roles. She made her Royal Opera debut in Rattle, , Sir John in ’s Hercules), the Hamburg Opera most popular soprano, their production of in 1997. Eliot Gardiner, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Kurt (Ferrando), the Teatro Real, Madrid (Tamino regularly appearing in More recently she returned to the Coliseum for Masur. His recital career takes him to the and the Male Chorus), the Grand Théâtre du opera and in concert, a revival of her acclaimed Rosina in Rossini’s greatest concert halls of the world and he has Genève (David) and appeared at the Châtelet on television and CD. Barber of Seville. She sang the role The Fox in recorded extensively by Warlock, , under Sir in the Glyndebourne She has won both Rachel Portman’s new opera, The Little Prince, Somervell, Strauss, Schubert and Schumann’s Festival production of Fidelio. He sang the role critical acclaim and the broadcast on BBC2 in 2004 Dichterliebe and Liederkreis. of the Madwoman in Britten’s Curlew River at affection of many fans Internationally Lesley has performed the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut in and music lovers. As a throughout Europe, the USA, Australia, An honours graduate and choral scholar Santa Fe as Tamino and as Ferdinand (Ades’ recording artist, she has twelve solo CDs to her , , Japan, , from New College, Oxford, Toby Spence The Tempest). He has established close links credit. Soprano in Red received the Gramophone and . In the 2002 New Year’s

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 26-27 2/3/08 14:28:37 Honours List Lesley Garrett was awarded a Giovanni. His recent engagements have Geoffrey Mitchell’s singing career has of the music they play – though boundaries CBE for Services to Music. included Eisenstein (), encompassed a remarkably wide repertoire now extend to post-Enlightenment Verdi – Don Alfonso, Ulisse and Don Giovanni at from early to contemporary music and and to the ethos of discovery. There was no Born in , the Bayerische Staatsoper; Prosdocimo has taken him to Scandinavia, , single conductor. Instead, conductors or , () and the title role in Sweeney the former Czechoslovakia, Canada and (often) directors from violins or keyboards Sir Thomas Allen Todd at the Royal Opera House; Eisenstein Australasia. Early experience with were appointed on a concert-by-concert basis, Sussie Ahlburg Sussie (Alfonso) made his at the Glyndebourne Festival; Don Alfonso the BBC led to a wider involvement with his instantly widening the field to include those professional debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Salzburg own singers and in turn to the establishment of who might not otherwise ever face an orchestra with Welsh National Easter and Summer Festivals; Forester the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir. Early recordings of period instruments. The Orchestra of the Opera and is now () at the San resulted in the Choir’s long-term involvement Age of Enlightenment was quickly recognised an established star Francisco Opera; and Beckmesser and with Opera Rara for which it has made over as special, its playing charged with an energy of the great opera Don Alfonso at the Metropolitan Opera thirty recordings. The Choir is enjoying a that comes from its entire body, not from one houses of the world. in New York. growing reputation with further work from inspirational figurehead. At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Equally renowned on the concert platform, the BBC and international record companies. Twenty-one years later the Orchestra of where in 2006 he celebrated the thirty-fifth he appears in recital in the United Kingdom, For Chandos the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir has the Age of Enlightenment still flourishes. anniversary of his debut with the company, throughout Europe, in Australia and America, participated in numerous recordings in the Besides giving concerts it also appears regularly he has sung over forty roles. In 2006, he also and has appeared with the world’s great acclaimed Opera in English series sponsored by in the pit as the Associate Orchestra at celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of his and conductors. the Peter Moores Foundation. Glyndebourne. It’s also a Resident Orchestra debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. Thomas Allen’s first book,Foreign Parts – at London’s Southbank Centre and has a He is an acclaimed artist of the Lyric Opera A Singer’s Journal was published in 1993 and Since 1976 there has existed a largely London- residency in the south-west of England. of Chicago, San Francisco Opera and Los in 2003 he made a triumphant directing based core of players of baroque instruments In celebration of its twenty-one years, six Angeles Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper in debut with Albert Herring at the Royal who have played for bands run autonomously great men who have played pivotal roles in Munich and La Scala, Milan, as well as both College of Music. He has since directed by experts. Confidence and standards had the Orchestras history have been named the Salzburg and Glyndebourne Festivals. successful productions of Don Giovanni and improved greatly in the following ten years and as Principal Artists (Iván Fischer, Vladimir He has been particularly acclaimed for his Così fan tutte at the Sage, Gateshead. In the music-making had been transformed. Jurowski and Sir Simon Rattle) and Emeritus Billy Budd, Pelléas, , Ulisse New Year’s Honours of 1989 he was created a In 1986 a group of players formed a self- Conductors (Frans Brüggen, Sir Charles and Beckmesser, as well as the great Mozart Commander of the British Empire and in the governing orchestra of period instruments – Mackerras and Sir Roger Norrington). roles of Count Almaviva, Don Alfonso, 1999 Queen’s Birthday Honours he was made the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Two violinists, Alison Bury and Margaret Papageno, Guglielmo and, of course, Don a Knight Bachelor. Their name reflected both the period of much Faultless, share the leader’s desk. The

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 28-29 2/3/08 14:28:38 Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment He has been a pioneer in the dissemination of Chamber Orchestra, Conductor Emeritus of Australia in 1997. In 2003 he became a maintains its prominence and continues to the music of Janácˇek throughout the capitals of Welsh National Opera and Principal Guest Companion of Honour in the Queen’s thrill audiences with its dynamic, refined, Europe and in the USA and Australia. Jenu˚fa Conductor Emeritus of the San Francisco Opera. Birthday Honours. In May 2005 he was characterful, and extraordinary playing. has been a particular favourite. Sir Charles received a CBE in 1974, was presented with the Royal Philharmonic He has had a long association with the knighted in 1979, honoured with the medal Society Gold Medal and in November 2005 Sir Charles Mackerras and recorded most of of Merit from the Czech Republic in 1996 was the first recipient of the Queen’s Medal studied at the Sydney Janácˇek’s orchestral works with them as well and made a Companion of the Order of for Music. Conservatorium of as Katya Kabanova and Dvorˇák’s . Music and came to Included in his vast discography is an award- On session: Sir Charles Mackerras with members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment England in 1947 winning cycle of the Janácˇek operas with the He gained a British in the early 1980s. For Council Scholarship Chandos he has recorded Janácˇek’s Glagolitic to study further at the Mass in the original version, and Kodály’s Academy of Music Psalmus Hungaricus. As part of the Opera in in Prague. His great English series he has recorded Osud, interest and love for Janácˇek commenced in La traviata, Werther, Julius Caesar, Mary Stuart, 1947 on hearing Katya Kabanova conducted by Eugene Onegin, Jenu˚fa, The Magic Flute, the great Václav Talich. , The Makropulos Case and As an assistant conduxtor at Sadler’s Wells Hansel and Gretel. in 1951 he gave the first performance of Sir Charles has also undertaken much Katya Kabanova in the English-speaking world. research into the music of the eighteenth Later he introduced The Makropulos Case and century, particularly Handel and Mozart. He From the House of the Dead at Sadler’s Wells has recorded a complete series of Mozart, and continued conducting highly successful Beethoven and symphonies, several productions of Janácˇek’s operas as well as more oratorios by Handel, symphonies by Mahler standard repoertoire when he became Musical and Elgar, and a series of operas by Mozart and Director of English National Opera (1970 – . He is at present Principal 77), and for Welsh National Opera when he Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia became their Musical Director (1987–1992). Orchestra, Conductor Laureate of the Scottish

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 30-31 2/3/08 14:28:40 British philanthropist Sir Peter Moores established the Peter Moores Foundation in 1964 to University (providing the lead donation which paved the way for the development of the realise his charitable aims and, to fulfill one of these, the Compton Verney House Trust in Said Business School). 1993 to create a new art gallery in the country. Through his charities he has disbursed many millions to a wide variety of arts, environmental and social causes ‘to get things done and In 1993 the Foundation bought Compton Verney, a Grade I Georgian mansion in open doors for people’. Warwickshire, designed by Robert Adam, with grounds by Capability Brown. Compton Verney House Trust was set up by Sir Peter to transform the derelict mansion into a world- Sir Peter’s philanthropic work began with his passion for opera: in his twenties he helped a class art gallery that would provide an especially welcoming environment for the ‘first-time’ number of young artists in the crucial, early stages of their careers, several of whom – Dame gallery visitor. The gallery, which houses six permanent collections, a Learning Centre for all , Sir Colin Davis and the late Sir Geraint Evans amongst them – became ages, and facilities for major visiting exhibitions, was opened in 2004 by HRH the world-famous. Prince of Wales. The Compton Verney website can be found at: www.comptonverney.org.uk

Today, the Peter Moores Foundation supports talented young singers with scholarships, Sir Peter Moores was born in Lancashire and educated at Eton College and Christ Church, has made it possible for to issue the world’s largest catalogue of operas Oxford. He was a student at the Vienna Academy of Music, where he produced the Austrian recorded in English translation, and enabled Opera Rara to record rare bel canto repertoire premiere of ’s The Rape of Lucretia, and at the same time was an assistant which would otherwise remain inaccessible to the general public. producer with the , working with Viennese artists in Naples, Geneva and Rome, before returning to England in 1957 to join his father’s business, Littlewoods. He In live performance, the Foundation has encouraged of new work and schemes was Vice-Chairman of Littlewoods in 1976, Chairman from 1977 to 1980 and remained a to attract new audiences, financed the publication of scores, especially for world premieres director until 1993. of modern operas, and enabled rarely heard works to be staged by British opera companies and festivals. He received the Gold Medal of the Italian Republic in 1974, an Honorary MA from Christ Church, Oxford, in 1975, and was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Northern Projects supported by the Foundation to help the young have ranged from a scheme College of Music in 1985. In 1992 he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire by to encourage young Afro-Caribbeans ‘stay at school’ for further education, to the HM the Queen. He was appointed CBE in 1991 and received a Knighthood in 2003 for his endowment of a Faculty Directorship and Chair of Management Studies at Oxford charitable services to the arts.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 32-33 2/3/08 14:28:41 Sängerensemble (auch hier gab es einige eingerichtete Fassung, Così fan tutte Entlassungen) oder in der Tat ganz allgemein führte das Werk an dessen ursprünglicher aus der Gattung der opera buffa (der nicht- Heimstätte, dem Wiener Opernhaus auf, Così fan tutte – “So machen es alle ihre Stärken (eine für großen Stimmumfang tragischen Oper). Unter den gegebenen Sir Thomas Beecham dirigierte es in London Frauen” – entstand im Laufe des Jahres konzipierte Bravour-Arie mit zwei Tempi für Umständen war es schon eine beachtliche und Fritz Busch präsentierte es 1934 in einer 1789, wobei nach einer eher gemächlichen Fiordiligi, “Hab’ Mitleid, o verzeih’ mir”) und Leistung, dass im Laufe des Sommers noch Inszenierung von Carl Ebert anlässlich des Konzeptionsphase die Komposition nach dem derzeitige Schwächen (nur eine ganz kurze Arie fünf weitere Aufführungen stattfanden neu eröffneten Glyndebourne Festivals, bereits vorliegenden Libretto des Hauspoeten für Don Alfonso). (von denen Mozart zumindest die letzte woraus sich auch die erste Einspielung der der Wiener Hofoper Abbé Lorenzo da Ponte Die neue Oper wurde – mit einer dirigierte). Oper ergab. dann sehr zügig erfolgte. Mit da Ponte hatte überraschenden Zahl von Streichungen, die Danach führte Così fan tutte unter Mozarts Was war es denn nun eigentlich, das man Mozart auch an der Hochzeit des Figaro und vermutlich dazu dienen sollten, die Probezeit reifen Werken allerdings eher eine Art am Text dieser Oper für so schockierend, Don Giovanni zusammengearbeitet, und die zu verkürzen – am 26. Januar 1790 am Wiener Aschenputtel-Dasein. Die nächste Aufführung unmoralisch oder trivial hielt? Da Pontes beiden wählten auch die Besetzung der ersten Burgtheater uraufgeführt und war (trotz in Wien fand erst 1794 statt. Während eines Dichtung scheint eine seiner “originalsten” Aufführung gemeinsam aus. Die damalige häufiger gegenteiliger Behauptungen) ein Großteils des 19. Jahrhunderts bewerteten Schöpfungen gewesen zu sein, im Gegensatz Geliebte des Librettisten – und da Ponte beachtlicher Erfolg. Die Premiere war von allen Kritiker und Impresarios – allen voran zu der direkten Übersetzung eines hatte zahlreiche Geliebte, da er als Geistlicher Opernaufführungen der Spielzeit 1789/90 bekanntermaßen Beethoven – das Libretto zeitgenössischen Schauspiels (wie es beim nicht heiraten durfte – Adriana Ferraresi del am besten besucht und die überlieferten als unmoralisch und trivial, und das Werk Figaro der Fall war) oder der umfassenden Bene übernahm die Rolle der Fiordiligi. Er Tagebucheintragungen und Kritiken fielen wurde immer wieder verschlimmbessert Bearbeitung eines fremden zeitgenössischen nannte sie sein “Unglück”, äußerte sich sehr positiv aus. Das Werk wurde noch vier weitere oder grundlegend verändert, bevor man es Librettos (Don Giovanni) – beides durchaus offen über ihren Mangel an vorzeigbaren Male aufgeführt, bevor einige Wochen später aufführte. Es herrschte verbreitet die Meinung, übliche Vorgehensweisen für Librettisten Attributen, schätzte aber ihre Augen und Mozarts unbeständiger Gönner Kaiser Joseph Mozart habe einen groben Irrtum begangen, im 18. Jahrhundert. Tatsächlich basierte ihren Mund. Die Rolle des Don Alfonso II. starb. Dies war in zweierlei Hinsicht eine als er für seine “göttliche” Musik ein solches das Libretto von Così fan tutte (das übernahm Mozarts erster Dr. Bartolo/Antonio Katastrophe; zum einen wurden – gerade, als Sujet wählte. Diese Auffassung begann sich bezeichnenderweise den Untertitel La scuola und Commendatore/Masetto, die Despina Così fan tutte sich zu etablieren begann – ab 1897 zu ändern, als eine Reihe von großen degli amanti, “Die Schule der Liebenden” trug) sein erster Cherubino, und den Guglielmo wegen der Hoftrauer für einige Wochen Dirigenten (und Komponisten) sich wieder großenteils auf einem zu der Zeit weithin sein erster Figaro. Da Mozart auch für die die Theater geschlossen, und zum anderen dem zuwandten, was Mozart und da Ponte bekannten Epos aus dem 16. Jahrhundert – übrigen Sänger des Ensembles bereits zuvor machte sich der neue Herrscher Leopold II. eigentlich geschrieben hatten – Richard Strauss Ariostos Orlando furioso. Aus dieser Vorlage einmal etwas komponiert hatte, waren ihm alle wenig aus Mozart, aus da Ponte (der entlassen dirigierte in München eine von Hermann bezog da Ponte nicht nur die Namen einzelner Stimmen wohlvertraut und er berücksichtigte wurde), aus dem von ihnen verpflichteten Levi (Wagners erstem Parsifal-Dirigenten) Personen und dramatische Inhalte, sondern

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 34-35 2/3/08 14:28:42 auch – in einer Art “Erkennen Sie das Zitat”- in der die jungen Offiziere ihre Damen Alfonso Männern, bei Soldaten sucht Ihr Moralität?”, die Zauberflöte, vorwegzunehmen – mag Spiel, an dem viele seiner gebildeten Wiener gegenüber anpreisen). Und Salieri – um das Militär – und Wien war 1790 voller ein Publikum, das von einem klassischen Zuschauer sicherlich mit großem Vergnügen nicht wirklich Mozarts Nemesis, als die er Militär – mit seiner “Küsse sie und mach’ dich Komponisten eher eine zurückhaltendere teilnahmen – Entlehnungen oder Adaptationen im Theater und Film des 20. Jahrhunderts aus dem Staub”-Moral zu persiflieren. Die opera buffa erwartet haben dürfte, noch tiefer ganzer Bilder und Formulierungen. Auch seine gerne dargestellt wird – war schließlich “albanische” Verkleidung der Männer erinnert verwirrt haben. eigenen Libretti Il finto cieco und Una cosa unter da Pontes regelmäßigen künstlerischen an die zu der Zeit stattfindenden Kriege Als nächstes sind die “Anspielungen für rara schlachtete er großzügig aus. Und selbst Partnern derjenige, dessen große Belesenheit Österreichs gegen „östliche“ Mächte, vor allem Insider” zu nennen. Schon der Haupttitel mit dem zentralen Thema der Liebenden, die und literarisches savoir-faire ihn den Italiener gegen die Türkei, die schon immer das Ziel des Werks ist ein Zitat aus einer früheren mittels Verkleidung ihre gegenseitige Treue noch höher schätzen ließ als Mozart dies des grobschlächtigen Wiener Theaterhumors Zusammenarbeit von Mozart und da Ponte – prüfen, befand er sich auf wohlvertrautem tat. Eigentlich also müsste doch er vor allen war (wie etwas in Mozarts Serail-Oper). In der “così fan tutte le belle”, “So machen es alle dramatischem Terrain; Beispiele für dieses anderen da Pontes klassische Anspielungen am Tat entspricht Despinas wiederholte Reaktion Schönen” stammt aus der Hochzeit des Figaro – Sujet lassen sich bis zum Gott Zeus in der ehesten zu schätzen gewusst haben? auf das erste Auftauchen der verkleideten während die Beschreibung der mitwirkenden griechischen Mythologie zurückverfolgen, Tatsächlich jedoch scheint eine Situation Liebhaber recht genau den zeitgenössischen Schwestern Fiordiligi und Dorabella als zu Ovids oder auch zu den entstanden zu sein wie die, als in der Mitte Kommentaren in den Volkszeitungen – “Was “vornehme Damen aus Ferrara” sowohl auf die jüngeren “geprüften” Paaren in Shakespeares des 19. Jahrhunderts die wackeren Bürger von für Gesichter! Was für Bärte!/Ich frag mich, Sängerin Adriana Ferraresi anspielt als auch A Midsummer Night’s Dream und Marivaux’s Venedig (und ihre Zensoren) Verdi zwangen, wer die sind – Walachen oder Türken?”. auf die verbreitete Meinung, Frauen aus dieser La Dispute (das Stück entstand 1744 und war sein zeitgenössisches Drama über Pariser Überhaupt ist Despina fast ein wandelndes Stadt seien von zweifelhafter Tugend. Und hat in Wien ein großer Erfolg). Mätressen La traviata bei der Erstaufführung Sprachrohr sowohl für den Mann auf der möglicherweise der Umstand, dass es sich um Von daher also lag mit diesem Stoff nichts in Kostümen und Bühnenbildern aus der Zeit Straße als auch für Mozarts und da Pontes Schwestern handelte, Mozart an sein eigenes allzu Neues oder Beängstigendes vor. Doch von Ludwig XIV. zu präsentieren. Salieri und gesellschaftskritische Beobachtungen. Und sie Werben um die Weber-Schwestern erinnert – der Hofkomponist Antonio Salieri – der zahlreiche nachfolgende Darsteller, Förderer ist es auch, die im ersten Akt die Idee zu der zuerst von Aloysia zurückgewiesen, dann erste Musiker, dem da Ponte sein Libretto und Zuschauer waren brüskiert von dem sehr ärztlichen “Behandlung” der Vergiftung hat, von Constanze erhört? Das zunächst Salieri anbot – brach seine Komposition bereits mit modernen Umgang mit sexuellen Themen, wodurch der Magnet(ismus) von Franz Anton angetragene Libretto wurde in einer ganzen dem zweiten Trio der Männer im ersten Akt von der Art der Charakterzeichnung und Mesmer direkt auf der Bühne präsentiert wird Reihe von Punkten geändert, als Mozart das ab mit der Begründung, der Text sei “der überhaupt von dem, was man sich auf der (Mesmer war ein persönlicher Freund und Projekt übernahm – vermutlich auf seine musikalischen Umsetzung unwürdig”. (Ein Bühne zu tun und zu thematisieren erlaubte. regelmäßiger Briefpartner von Mozart und eigene Anregung hin. Blick auf die überlieferten Skizzen zeigt, dass Zunächst waren da die offensichtlichen dessen Familie). Diese Art von burleskem Ein weiterer Faktor ist die recht unverblümte Salieri in seiner Vertonung fast gänzlich die zeitgenössischen Anspielungen. Despina Theater – fast scheint Mozart hier schon sexuelle Metaphorik. Ursprünglich war der prahlerische Ironie der Szene vermissen läßt, erhält im ersten Akt eine ganze Arie (“Bei sein “volkstümliches” Musikschauspiel, Schauplatz der Oper Triest. Die Verlagerung

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 36-37 2/3/08 14:28:42 nach Neapel ist zweifellos in dem Ruf dieser instrumentalen Details, die man als vor- Guglielmo? Glauben die jungen Offiziere deren Enttarnung ebenso überrascht wie ihre Stadt als einem südlich-dekadenten güldenen romantisch bezeichnen könnte; zum anderen wirklich ihren Prahlereien über die Mädchen Schützlinge, oder aber schockiert sie eher die Palast der Sünde und der eruptiven Gegenwart setzte er einen ungewöhnlich großen Teil der (die sie kaum zu kennen scheinen), oder Tatsache, dass alle sie zum Narren gehalten des vulkanischen Vesuvs (der im Bühnenbild Handlung für Ensemble um – ein weiterer versuchen sie vielmehr herauszufinden, ob haben? All diese Optionen sind wirklich zu sehen ist) begründet, damals wie heute eine Schritt in Richtung auf die naturalistische das Gegenteil der Fall ist? Ist ihre Verkleidung möglich und auch im Spiel darstellbar – ganz offensichtliche Metapher der Erregung. durchkomponierte narrative Operndarstellung, absichtlich übertrieben und damit kaum selbst innerhalb einer streng wortgetreuen Und wenn die vor den Aufmerksamkeiten des die er zuerst im Finale des zweiten Akts des überzeugend? Umsetzung von Text und Musik. verkleideten Ferrando flüchtende Fiordiligi Figaro erkundet hatte. In den unzähligen Inszenierungen seit Das Gedankengut der Französischen berichtet, sie habe “eine Natter, eine Hydra, Heute würden wir das, was unsere Così fan tutte in den 1950er Jahren ins Revolution, die sich genau in der Zeit vollzog, einen Basilisken” gesehen, beschreibt sie wohl Vorfahren für unmoralisch hielten und als Standardrepertoire aufgenommen wurde als Così fan tutte uraufgeführt wurde, wirkte kaum irgendein mythologisch-orientalisches trivial bezeichneten, eher als überzeugende haben die verschiedenen Interpretationen sich eindeutig auf die Oper aus, wenn auch in Gemälde. In der Tat scheint sich das psychologische Tiefe werten. Così fan tutte sich vor allem auf die genaue Motivierung weniger offensichtlicher Weise als auf Figaro sexuelle Element nicht auf Anspielungen zu erscheint uns als ein tiefgründigeres und der einzelnen Charaktere konzentriert. Ist oder Don Giovanni. Einerseits zwar sollten beschränken. Die Musik und Metaphorik zum allgemeingültigeres Drama als selbst Figaro Don Alfonso ein herzloser, chauvinistischer die Reformen des dritten Standes nie wirklich Beispiel von Dorabellas Arie im zweiten Akt oder Don Giovanni, da das Werk nicht an Zyniker, darauf aus, Unheil anzurichten, im habsburgischen Reich ankommen. Die “Die Liebe ist ein kleiner Dieb” reflektieren einen spezifischen politisch-sozialen Kontext um irgendein ihm selbst zugestoßenes mal Arbeiter blieben Arbeiter (selbst als Napoleon ganz eindeutig die Erregung einer ersten gebunden ist (wie die Auseinandersetzungen d’amour zu kompensieren, oder ist er ein in Wien einmarschierte), und die Despinas sexuellen Erfahrung. zwischen Aristokraten und Dienerschaft Prospero-artiger Erzieher, der die wesentlichen dieser Welt – wie geistreich und klug sie auch “Ich versichere Ihnen, dass Figaro und in den übrigen da-Ponte-Opern), sondern Lebenserfahrungen der Jugend lenken will? Ist gewesen sein mögen – wurden weiterhin Giovanni im Vergleich mit Così die Werke sich mit fundamentalen menschlichen Despina eine von Don Alfonsos Geldbeutel am Grunde des Haufens ausgenutzt und eines Amateurs sind”, schrieb der erfahrene Belangen beschäftigt. Die Paare in dieser gekaufte zynische Verbündete, eine realistische ausgebeutet. Andererseits treiben die Frauen Mozart-Kenner und französische Komponist Oper setzen sich nicht nur mit Themen der und brutal offenherzige Tutorin der Mädchen in diesen Opern die dramatische Handlung Reynaldo Hahn. Neben der Wortwahl und sexuellen Politik auseinander, sondern mit in sexuellen Angelegenheiten, oder eine wesentlich aktiver voran als es meist in der dem psychologischen Gehalt von da Pontes grundsätzlichen Fragen der Ehrlichkeit sich Aufrührerin aus der Arbeiterklasse (wie opera buffa der Fall ist, und der in Bezug auf Libretto würde auch die ruhige Radikalität von selbst und anderen gegenüber. Fast haben wir Figaro und Leporello), die gegen verwöhnte Così fan tutte immer wieder geäußerte Vorwurf Mozarts Vertonung konservativen Geistern es hier mit einer Art Wiener Psychoanalyse Ansichten der Mittel- und Oberschicht des Sexismus wird weitgehend abgewehrt kaum gefallen haben. Zum einen spiegelt einhundert Jahre vor Freud zu tun. Was ist angeht? Und weiß sie überhaupt, dass es sich durch die liberale Art, mit der Fiordiligi und diese Vertonung die Textvorlage und die darin zum Beispiel Don Alfonsos Motivierung für bei den “Albanern” tatsächlich um Ferrando Dorabella auf ihre neuen Liebhaber zugehen, ausgedrückten Emotionen mit illustrativen seine Herausforderung von Ferrando und und Guglielmo handelt, oder ist sie bei die in ihrer albanischen Tarnung für solch

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 38-39 2/3/08 14:28:43 vornehme Damen der Mittelklasse doch eher doch mein Betrug hat Euren Freunden die Reverend Marmaduke E. Browne fertigte e tanti” wiederholt, variiert Browne seine unpassende Partner zu sein scheinen. Augen geöffnet, die fortan umso weiser sein anlässlich des einhundertsten Jahrestags der Worte jedes Mal mit großer Erfindungsgabe: Doch wie steht es mit dem Ende? Ist und nach meinem Willen handeln werden... Uraufführung der Oper eine neue englische “Ladies have such variations, permutations, es wirklich möglich, dass nach solchen umarmt einander und schweigt”. Ferrando Übersetzung an. Browne war Chorleiter fluctuations”, “Alas their vacillations, Verletzungen, solch engem Kontakt mit einem und Guglielmo akzeptieren das Versprechen und Organist, und obwohl man es für eines complications”, “the ladies’ retractions, anderen Partner (und dem Partner eines ihrer Liebsten, “Euch ewig zu bewundern”, Geistlichen nicht recht würdig erachten mag, abjurations”, “aberrations, hesitations”, usw. anderen) der Status quo wiederhergestellt allerdings nur mit der Einschränkung: sich mit dem Thema Oper zu beschäftigen, Obwohl diese Zeilen ein Jahrhundert nach werden kann? Hat nicht das eher buffo “Glauben will ich dir, Geliebte, aber ich werde sind seine Reime oft ausgesprochen witzig – Da Pontes Original entstanden, scheint ausgerichtete, das oberflächlichere Paar – Dich nicht auf die Probe stellen”. Despina, auch wenn sie gelegentlich recht weit von Brownes Fassung doch den Stil eines Pope oder Dorabella und Guglielmo – einander die sich fragt, ob sie etwa träumt, fühlt sich Da Pontes Original abweichen. Man beachte Sheridan aufzugreifen. Brownes eigenwilligster ebenso entdeckt wie die poetischeren und verwirrt und beschämt und droht eine Art zum Beispiel die ersten Worte der verliebten Reim findet sich vielleicht in Don Alfonsos nachdenklicheren beiden anderen – Fiordiligi Rache an – “diesmal haben sie mich getäuscht, Mädchen, als sie verzückt die Bildnisse ihrer berühmter Zusammenfassung: und Ferrando –, die, nebenbei bemerkt, doch ich werde noch viele andere hinters Licht Verehrer betrachten: “Spite of wisdom, folly, plainness or beauty, auch die höheren Stimmen haben? Im führen”. Erst danach legen die Schauspieler Fiordiligi: every woman’s the same, Così fan tutte.” 18. Jahrhundert und für Mozart und da Ponte ihre Rollen ab, um dem Publikum einen “This portrait alone is (wobei er “beauty” auf “tutte” anstatt auf war dies einfach kein Problem. Der Ausbruch abstrakten weisen Rat zu erteilen: “Glücklich the face of Adonis.” “tutti” reimt!) aus den Konventionen hatte sich innerhalb ist der Mensch, der alles von der rechten Seite Worauf Dorabella erwidert: (Die deutsche Fassung lautet: “Sei’s bei der klassischen Einheit von Zeit (ein einziger betrachtet und in Stürmen und Anfechtungen “Ah, then it must follow Hässlichen, Schönen, Jungen und Alten:/ Tag von Sonnenaufgang bis Sonnenuntergang) sich von der Vernunft leiten lässt”. that this is Apollo.” Darum stimmt mit uns ein: Così fan tutte!”) und Ort (abgesehen von der anfänglichen (Eine konventionelle deutsche Übersetzung Brownes Übersetzung wurde in Sadler’s © 2008 Mike Ashman Szene im Kaffeehaus, wo die Männer ihre würde in etwa lauten: Fiordiligi: “O sieh doch Wells noch bis in die 1960er Jahre verwendet, Wette abschließen) abgespielt und ist mit nur, Schwester,/Ob feinere Lippen,/Ob edlere obwohl sich für die meisten bekannten Opern dem Ende der Spielhandlung vorbei. Doch Eine Anmerkung vom Dirigent Züge/Wohl jemals man fand.” inzwischen die neuen Übersetzungen von Mozart und da Ponte können – passend Im Jahr 1890 wurde Così fan tutte von Dorabella: “Betrachte dies Bildnis!/Die E. J. Dent durchgesetzt hatten. Als ich Così zu ihrem neuen Realismus, der einhundert Studenten des damals gerade sieben Jahre feurigen Augen,/Sie stecken wie Blitze/Die 1980 in John Cox’ bezaubernder Inszenierung Jahre lang die Kommentatoren aufregte und alten Royal College of Music unter dem Titel Herzen in Brand.”) am Londoner Coliseum dirigierte, benutzten herausforderte – ihr Stück an dieser Stelle noch School for Lovers am Londoner Savoy Theatre Ein anderes Beispiel ist Guglielmos wir immer noch Brownes Fassung – mit vielen nicht recht enden lassen. Don Alfonso sagt aufgeführt. Dirigent war der Direktor des Schmährede gegen die Frauen. Wo Da Ponte Revisionen von Cox, der den englischen Text abschließend: “Ja, ich hab’ Euch hintergangen, RCM, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, und der wieder und wieder die Worte “la fate a tanti besser an Da Pontes ursprüngliche Bedeutung

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 40-41 2/3/08 14:28:43 und die Deklamation an Mozarts originale komischen Opern der Zeit übliche Zahl von die Vokallinien der Arien mit gelegentlichen und versprechen bei ihrer Soldatenehre, Don Rhythmen annähern wollte. Diese Fassung von zwei Arien pro Sänger beibehalten wird. Ähnlich Verzierungen versehen. Alfonsos Instruktionen genau zu befolgen und Brownes Text wurde auch in der vorliegenden wurden üblicherweise auch kleinere Kürzungen Wir haben das große Glück, dass in ihren Liebchen nichts zu verraten. Einspielung verwendet. in dem Duett von Ferrando und Fiordiligi, dem der Fürstenbergischen Hofbibliothek in Bei der oben erwähnten studentischen Chor im Finale des zweiten Akts und in vielen Donaueschingen eine verzierte Fassung von Ein Garten am Meeresufer Aufführung von 1890 handelte es sich Rezitativen vorgenommen. Obwohl heutzutage Così fan tutte überliefert ist. Einige dieser 7 – 8 Fiordiligi und Dorabella vertiefen übrigens nicht um die erste Inszenierung Einspielungen dazu tendieren, Opern Ornamente und Kadenzen – vor allem in sich seufzend in die Bildnisse ihrer beiden in englischer Sprache. Zum ersten Mal vollständig und ohne jegliche Kürzungen zu den Arien von Fiordiligi – wurden bei dieser Geliebten, obwohl Fiordiligi zugleich auch erklang Così fan tutte in London im Jahre präsentieren, habe ich mich dafür entschieden, Einspielung übernommen. eingesteht, sie habe “ein törichtes Verlangen 1811; 1828 wurde das Werk an der Royal diese englische Fassung von Così fan tutte mit nach einem Abenteuer”. 9 – 11 Don Alfonso © 2008 Sir Charles Mackerras English Opera als Tit for Tat oder The Tables den üblichen Kürzungen aufzunehmen und sie erscheint und teilt ihnen mit vorgetäuschtem Turned! gegeben. Man fragt sich, wie diese damit eher wie eine Inszenierung auf der Bühne Bedauern mit, ihre Offiziere hätten beide Adaptation von Così fan tutte wohl ausgesehen zu behandeln. Unterhaltung soeben den Befehl zum aktiven Dienst erhalten haben mag, zumal die Programmfolge noch Bezüglich des Aufführungsstils dieser und müssten noch am selben Tage aufbrechen. ein zweites Stück vorsah – The Bottle Imp Einspielung ist es in der Tat eine große Freude, COMPACT DISC ONE 12 – 13 Er gestattet ihnen einen kurzen (“Der Flaschengeist”, nach einem bekannten Mozarts wunderbare Musik mit der Klangfarbe, Abschied und lacht über den übertriebenen deutschen Märchen). der Artikulation und der rhythmischen Verve 1 Overtüre Kummer der Mädchen, während er die Bei der Erstaufführung in Wien im des Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Erster Akt Männer daran erinnert, dass das Spiel gerade Jahre 1790 erlaubte Mozart die Auslassung verbinden zu können. Unsere Sänger machen Ein Café erst begonnen hat. 14 – 17 Soldaten erscheinen, zahlreicher Passagen; warum er dies tat, ist natürlich ausgiebig von der Vorschlagspraxis 2 – 4 Zwei junge Offiziere, Ferrando um Ferrando und Guglielmo zu ihrem Boot nicht bekannt, da auch einige ausgezeichnete Gebrauch – das heißt, sie singen die erste von und Guglielmo, brüsten sich ihrem älteren zu geleiten; 18 – 19 Don Alfonso und die Stellen gestrichen wurden, etwa das kanonische zwei oder drei Silben eines Wortes einen Ton Freund Don Alfonso gegenüber der Treue Mädchen wünschen ihnen eine sichere Reise Quartett zu Beginn des zweiten Finale. höher (oder tiefer), als er notiert ist. Diese ihrer Geliebten, der Schwestern Fiordiligi (“Weht leise, ihr Winde”). Heutige Inszenierungen nehmen gewöhnlich Technik richtet den Text aus und verleiht und Dorabella. 5 – 6 Don Alfonso will keine solch drastischen Kürzungen vor, zwei seinem Fluss größere Akzentuierung. mit ihnen um 100 Zechinen wetten, dass er Ein hübscher Raum im Hause der Schwestern Nummern werden jedoch traditionsgemäß Mozarts Sänger in Così fan tutti waren ihnen noch am selben Tag die Untreue ihrer 20 – 21 Despina, die Kammerzofe der ausgelassen – ein Duett für die Männer im sämtlich recht große Berühmtheiten und Freundinnen beweisen wird, da diese genau Schwestern, beklagt ihr “schauderhaftes ersten Akt und eine dritte Arie für Ferrando, hätten daher automatisch an den Fermaten wie alle anderen seien, nämlich von Natur Leben” als Bedienstete. 22 – 24 Als Dorabella “Ah lo veggio”, wodurch die für die meisten ihre eigenen Kadenzen angefügt sowie auch aus untreu. Die beiden nehmen die Wette an davon spricht, an den Qualen der Liebe

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 42-43 2/3/08 14:28:44 zugrundezugehen, rät Despina ihren aus verschmähter Liebe Arsen zu schlucken; Im Garten am Meer eine vernünftige Frau verhalten zu haben; 6 trauernden Herrinnen, sich zu amüsieren, Don Alfonso und Despina fordern die 9 – 11 Ihre neuen Galane haben für die jungen “junge Liebe ist unerbittlich”, gesteht Dorabella während ihre Geliebten abwesend sind, und Mädchen auf, sich der sterbenden Männer Damen eine al-fresco-Serenade arrangiert. ein. 7 Fiordiligi schilt sie beide dafür, sich mit macht sich über ihren Glauben lustig, bei “zärtlich anzunehmen”, und gehen auf der Anschließend überlassen Despina und Don der ganzen Welt zusammengetan zu haben, um Männern und Soldaten “ein treues Herz” Suche nach einem Arzt ab. Gerade als die Alfonso die vier sich selbst. 12 Guglielmo flirtet sie zum Einlenken zu bringen. Sie trägt Despina zu finden. Von dem Gehörten aufgebracht Mädchen eingestehen, ihre Herzen seien von mit Dorabella und schenkt ihr ein Medaillon; auf, die Ersatzuniformen der beiden Offiziere stürmen die jungen Damen davon. Mitleid bewegt, 3 trifft der Doktor ein (die er ist zugleich erschrocken und fasziniert, als zu holen; sie hat beschlossen, gemeinsam mit verkleidete Despina, die von den Männern sie es annimmt. Sodann gelingt es ihm, ihr ihr Dorabella zum Schlachtfeld hinauszugehen 25 Despina ist nicht erfreut, als sie auf ihren erkannt wird, nicht aber von den Mädchen), eigenes Medaillon mit dem Bildnis Ferrandos und ihre wahren Geliebten zu suchen. 8 alten Bekannten Don Alfonso trifft, doch gibt mit seinen Sprachkünsten an und zu entlocken. 13 Die beiden verspüren eine Doch Ferrando unternimmt – unterstützt er erkauft sich ihre Unterstützung bei dem schlägt eine von “Dr. Mesmer” entwickelte starke gegenseitige Anziehung und akzeptieren von Guglielmo und Don Alfonso – einen Versuch, die beiden Mädchen anderen Heilung vor. Der Magnet und ausgiebiger “den exquisiten Schmerz, in Liebe zu vergehen”. allerletzten, erfolgreichen Versuch, den “Felsen” Galanen vorzustellen. 26 Guglielmo und körperlicher Kontakt mit den Mädchen stellen 14 – 16 Fiordiligi fühlt sich von Ferrando zwar Fiordiligi zu erobern. “Oh Gott, ich bin besiegt, Ferrando erscheinen in Verkleidung (Despina die Gesundheit der Albaner wieder her, aber ähnlich stark angezogen, widersteht ihm aber tu mit mir, wie dir beliebt”, sagt sie zu ihm. fragt sich, ob sie Türken oder Wallachen Fiordiligi und Dorabella wanken immer noch zunächst und fleht den abwesenden Guglielmo seien) und erklären Fiordiligi und Dorabella nicht. an, ihr Verlangen zu verzeihen (“Ach mein 9 – 11 Don Alfonso ermutigt die Verlierer, ihre glühende Liebe. 27 – 30 Um sie zu Liebster, ich erbitte Vergebung”). solange sie noch in seiner Schuld stehen, ihre unterstützen, gibt Don Alfonso vor, sie seien Zweiter Akt neuen Lieben “zu heiraten”. Sodann lässt er alte Freunde, doch die Schwestern widerstehen Ein Raum im Hause der Schwestern COMPACT DISC THREE sie die Worte seiner Ermahnung wiederholen: allen Schmeicheleien – vor allem Fiordiligi, die 4 Die jungen Damen werden von Despina “Così fan tutte” (so machen es alle). standhaft “wie ein Fels” sein will. 31 – 33 Allein weiterhin bearbeitet und überredet ( 5 – 6 1 – 4 Die Männer vergleichen ihre Erfolge: mit Don Alfonso, lachen die Männer über “Schon mit fünfzehn muss ein Mädchen weise Allzu zuversichtlich hört Guglielmo von Ein hell erleuchteter Saal ihren offensichtlichen Sieg (“Solch betörende und erfahren sein”) und beschließen endlich, Fiordiligis Treue, dann zeigt er Ferrando 12 – 13 Die Hochzeit der Schwestern mit Augen, die unsere Hoffnung bestärken”). dass man sich nicht dafür schämen müsse, Dorabellas Medaillon. Don Alfonso schlägt ihren neuen Geliebten wird mit großem Ablenkung zu suchen, um die Melancholie einen weiteren Versuch vor, Fiordiligis Tugend Prunk gefeiert. 14 Ein Notar (Despina in COMPACT DISC TWO zu vertreiben. 7 – 8 Dorabella, Ferrandos zu überwinden. einer weiteren Verkleidung) trifft ein, um Geliebte, beschließt, mit dem “recht dunklen” die offizielle Zeremonie zu leiten, wobei er Ein hübscher Garten mit zwei Grasbänken (Guglielmo) zu flirten, während Fiordiligi sich Ein Raum im Hause der Schwestern die “Albaner” als “Leander” und “Philander” 1 – 2 Die beiden “Albaner” geben nun vor, “dem blonden” (Ferrando) zuwendet. 5 Despina gratuliert Dorabella dazu, sich wie anredet. Die Mädchen unterschreiben den

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 44-45 2/3/08 14:28:45 Ehevertrag, doch ein Trommelwirbel und Janice Watson (Fiordiligi) studierte an der an der Royal Opera und in ihrem Debüt an zu ihren bisherigen Engagements zählen Soldatenstimmen unterbrechen die Zeremonie: Guildhall School of Music and Drama und der Mailänder Scala. Benvenuto Cellini an der Oper von Rom; Ferrando und Guglielmo sind von der Schlacht machte zunächst als Gewinnerin des Kathleen Auf dem Konzertpodium ist Janice Watson Iphigénie en Tauride in Buenos Aires, Madrid zurückgekehrt. Die “Albaner” und der Notar Ferrier Memorial Award auf sich aufmerksam. unter solch namhaften Dirigenten wie Sir Roger und an der Welsh National Opera; Albert verstecken sich, 15 dann erscheinen Ferrando Ihre bisherigen Opernrollen umfassen die Norrington, André Previn, Michael Tilson- Herring, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) und Guglielmo in Uniform. Sie sind von der Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) an der Pariser Opéra; Thomas, Sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Chailly, und Andromaca in Rossinis Ermione in Reaktion der Mädchen irritiert – “schweigsam” Vitellia () an der Vlaamse Frans Brüggen, Sir Neville Marriner und Glyndebourne; Isolier (Le Comte Ory) und “von einer Träne betaut” – bis sie den Notar Opera; Strauss’ Daphne, Arabella und Salome Bernard Haitink aufgetreten. in Lausanne, Rom und Glyndebourne; (Despina, die sofort verrät, wer sie ist) und den sowie Mozarts Elettra (Idomeneo) auf dem Für Chandos hat Janice Watson die Proserpina in Monteverdis Orfeo in Ehevertrag entdecken. Sie stürzen hinaus, um Santa Fe Festival; Daphne, Arabella und Eva Titelrolle in Jenu˚fa (in der Reihe “Opera in Amsterdam; Ariadne auf Naxos in Lissabon; sich an ihren “verhassten Rivalen” zu rächen, (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) an der Oper English”), Poulencs Gloria, Howells Missa Marguerite (La Damnation de Faust) in kehren jedoch gleich halbverkleidet zurück, von San Francisco; Pamina, Gräfin Almaviva Sabrinensis sowie die Ellen Orford in der Wien und Genf; Minerva (Il ritorno d’Ulisse um die ganze Geschichte aufzuklären und mit (Die Hochzeit des Figaro) und Arabella an mit einem Grammy Award ausgezeichneten in patria) in Amsterdam und Sydney; Despina ihren Spaß zu haben. Diese ist genauso der Bayerischen Staatsoper; Ellen Orford Einspielung von Peter Grimes aufgenommen. Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg am Royal überrascht und erschrocken wie die Schwestern. (Peter Grimes) an der Wiener Staatsoper, der Opera House Covent Garden, Junon in Don Alfonso entschuldigt sein Handeln mit Nederlandse Opera und dem Royal Opera Diana Montague (Dorabella) wurde in Rameaus Platée mit der Royal Opera auf dem der Begründung, er habe nur beabsichtigt, sie House, Covent Garden; Brittens Gloriana Winchester geboren und studierte am Royal Edinburgh Festival und in London, sowie davon zu überzeugen, dass nichts auf dieser auf dem Aldeburgh Festival; Gräfin Almaviva Northern College of Music. Seit ihrem Debüt Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) an der English Erde vollkommen sei. Er fordert alle zu einer und Salome an der Deutschen Staatsoper als Zerlina mit der Glyndebourne Touring National Opera, in Bilbao und am Teatro allgemeinen Versöhnung auf; die Mädchen Berlin; Micaëla (Carmen) an der Lyric Opera Opera ist sie am Royal Opera House, Covent Real in Madrid. beteuern, ihre Reue werde viel treuer sein als Chicago und der Metropolitan Opera; sowie Garden, an der Metropolitan Opera in New Zu Diana Montagues zahlreichen die Schwüre, die sie gebrochen haben; und Gräfin Almaviva und Liù an der Metropolitan York, dem Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brüssel, Einspielungen zählen Monteverdis Orfeo, die jungen Männer versprechen, diese neuen Opera. Zudem hat sie regelmäßig der Opéra national de Paris-Bastille, dem I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Norma und Iphigénie Schwüre niemals zu testen. 16 Alle preisen Gastverpflichtungen an der English National Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires sowie auf dem en Tauride; für die Chandos-Reihe “Opera den Menschen, der mit ruhiger Zuversicht das Opera (in jüngerer Zeit als die Marschallin Bayreuther und dem Salzburger Festival Rara“ Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, Zoraida di Leben so nimmt, wie es sich ihm darbietet. im Rosenkavalier und als Madam Butterfly) aufgetreten. Granata und Il crociato in Egitto, sowie im und der Welsh National Opera (zuletzt Ihr Repertoire umfaßt die großen Rollen Rahmen der Chandos-Reihe “Opera in © 2008 Mike Ashman in der Titelrolle von Strauss’ Ariadne) für Mezzosopran in den Opern von Mozart, English” Cherubino (Die Hochzeit des Figaro), Übersetzung: Stephanie Wollny wahrgenommen. Die Katya Kabanova sang sie Gluck, Strauss, Rossini, Bellini und Berlioz; Idamante (Idomeneo), Lola (Cavalleria

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 46-47 2/3/08 14:28:45 rusticana), Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier Turin, in Seattle und in München gesungen Sein Operndebüt feierte Toby Spence an and Orchestra, dem Cleveland Orchestra, den (Highlights), der Sandmann (Hansel and hat. Weitere Opernauftritte umfassen der Welsh National Opera als Idamante Berliner Philharmonikern und der San Francisco Gretel ) und Faust sowie schließlich zwei Don Giovanni an The Sage, Gateshead in (Idomeneo); seither hat er die Rolle auch an der Symphony unter solch namhaften Dirigenten Recital-CDs mit Großen Opernarien. einer neuen Inszenierung unter der Leitung Scottish Opera und der Bayerischen Staatsoper wie Sir Simon Rattle, John Eliot Gardiner, von Sir Thomas Allen; Graf Almaviva gesungen. In München war er zudem als Michael Tilson-Thomas, Valéry Gergiev und Der Gewinner des Liedpreises bei der Singer of (Le nozze di Figaro) in Wien; Papageno in Ferrando, Ottavio, Telemaco (Il ritorno d’Ulisse Antonio Pappano aufgetreten. Recitals hatte er the World Competition in Cardiff des Jahres San Francisco; Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) in patria) und Acis (Acis und Galatea) zu hören. auf dem Edinburgh Festival sowie in London in 1997 Christopher Maltman (Guglielmo) an der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin und in An La Monnaie in Brüssel hat er unter David LSO St Luke’s und der Wigmore Hall. studierte Biochemie an der Warwick University San Diego; Aeneas (Dido und Aeneas) in Robertson den Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) und Gesang an der . Wien; Tarquinius auf dem Aldeburgh Festival und unter Antonio Pappano den David Lesley Garrett, CBE (Despina), ist die Vor kurzem feierte er sein Debüt an der und an der English National Opera; in 2008 (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) gesungen. beliebteste Sopranistin Großbritanniens und Metropolitan Opera in New York in der Rolle auf dem Festival in Salzburg wurde er die Er ist ferner an der Oper von San Francisco regelmäßig in der Oper und im Konzert, des Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos). Am Royal Titelrolle in Don Giovanni singen. (in Alcina) aufgetreten sowie auf dem Festival im Fernsehen und auf CD zu hören. Sie Opera House, Covent Garden schuf er die Im Konzert hat er mit namhaften von Aix-en-Provence (in der Rolle des Hyllas hat sich die Zustimmung der Kritiker Rolle des Sebastian in der Welturaufführung Dirigenten wie Christoph von Dohnányi, in Händels Hercules), an der Hamburger und die Zuneigung zahlreicher Fans und von Thomas Adès’ The Tempest; außerdem sang John Adams, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Simon Oper (Ferrando), dem Teatro Real in Musikliebhaber erworben und bereits zwölf er hier den Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Ramiro Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir John Eliot Madrid (Tamino), dem Grand Théâtre du Solo-CDs aufgenommen. Für Soprano in Red (L’Heure espagnole), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Gardiner, Esa-Pekka Salonen und Kurt Masur Genève (David) und in der Glyndebourne- wurde sie mit dem Gramophone Award in der Nardo (La finta giardiniera) und Papageno zusammengearbeitet. Er gab zahlreiche Recitals Inszenierung von Fidelio unter Sir Simon Kategorie “Best-selling Classical Artist of the (Die Zauberflöte). Seine Auftritte auf dem in Großbritannien und im Ausland. Seine CD- Rattle am Châtelet. Auf dem Edinburgh Year” ausgezeichnet. In ihrer TV-Serie Glyndebourne Festival umfassen Ned Keene Einspielungen umfassen Lieder von Warlock, Festival sang er die Rolle der Madwoman in The Lesley Garrett Show sind als Gastkünstler (Peter Grimes), Sid (Albert Herring), Figaro Holst, Somervell, Strauss und Schubert sowie Benjamin Brittens Curlew River. Sein Debut bisher Marcello Alvarez, Ian Bostridge, Alison (Le nozze di Figaro), Achilla () Schumanns Dichterliebe und Liederkreis. in Santa Fe feierte er als Tamino und als Moyet, Michael Ball, Maxim Vengerov, und und Papageno. An der Bayerischen Staatsoper Ferdinand (Adès’ The Tempest). Er pflegt enge Joshua Bell, Renée Fleming, Ladysmith Black München hat er den Tarquinius (The Rape of Toby Spence (Ferrando) war Choral Scholar professionelle Verbindungen mit der English Mambazo, , Marti Pellow, Lucretia), Guglielmo, Marcello (La Bohème) am New College in Oxford, wo er sein National Opera (La Belle Hélène), und der Royal Michel Legrand und Elaine Page aufgetreten. und Albert (Werther) gesungen. Besonders Studium mit Auszeichnung abschloss, und Opera, Covent Garden in La Cenerentola. Zudem war sie Ehrengast der South Bank gefeiert wurde er als Billy Budd, den er an der wurde an der Opera School der Guildhall Im Konzert ist Toby Spence mit dem London Show, und ihre Musikprogramme in der BBC Welsh National Opera, dem Teatro Regio in School of Music and Drama ausgebildet. Symphony Orchestra, dem Monteverdi Choir mit The Singer wurden fortgesetzt.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 48-49 2/3/08 14:28:46 Zu Lesley Garretts Opernkarriere zählen feierte sein professionelles Debüt an der Welsh Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen) an der San in die ehemalige Tschechoslowakei, nach frühe Engagements auf dem Wexford Festival, National Opera und ist heute ein etablierter Francisco Opera und schließlich Beckmesser Kanada und Australasien geführt. Nachdem an der Welsh National Opera, der Opera Star an den großen Opernhäusern der Welt. und Don Alfonso an der Metropolitan Opera er bei der BBC erste Dirigiererfahrungen North und der Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Am Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in New York. Am Royal Opera House hat er gesammelt hatte, begann er mit eigenen bevor sie 1984 ins Ensemble der English wo er im Jahr 2006 das 35. Jubiläum seines der Vater (Hänsel und Gretel), Faninal (Der Sängern zu arbeiten und gründete den National Opera aufgenommen wurde. In Debüts mit diesem Ensemble beging, hat er Rosenkavalier) und gesungen. Geoffrey Mitchell Choir. Aus ersten ihrer Zeit an der English National Opera mehr als vierzig Rollen gesungen. Im Jahr Auch auf dem Konzertpodium hat Aufnahmen entwickelte sich eine langfristige wirkte sie in zahlreichen Inszenierungen mit 2006 feierte er zudem das 25. Jubiläum Sir Thomas Allen einen großen Namen; Zusammenarbeit des Chors mit Opera und wurde von der Kritik gleichermaßen für seines Debüts an der Metropolitan Opera in in Recitals war er mit den bedeutenden Rara, für die er über dreißig Tonträger ihre Interpretationen ernster und komischer New York. Er ist ein regelmäßiger und gern Orchestern und Dirigenten der Welt in aufgenommen hat. Der Chor genießt Rollen gefeiert. Ihr Debüt an der Royal gesehener Gast an der Lyric Opera of Chicago, Großbritannien, ganz Europa, Australien und wachsendes Ansehen und ist bei der BBC und Opera hatte sie 1997 in der Inszenierung der den Opernhäusern von San Francisco und Amerika zu hören. internationalen Plattenfirmen gefragt. Für Lustigen Witwe. In jüngerer Zeit kehrte sie Los Angeles, der Bayerischen Staatsoper in Thomas Allens erstes Buch, Foreign Parts – Chandos hat der Geoffrey Mitchell Choir an für eine Wiederaufnahme ihrer gerühmten München und der Mailänder Scala sowie bei A Singer’s Journal, wurde 1993 veröffentlicht, zahlreichen Aufnahmen der hervorragend Darbietung der Rosina in Rossinis Barbier den Festivals von Glyndebourne und Salzburg. und 2003 feierte er am Royal College of kritisierten Reihe Opera in English unter von Sevilla ans Coliseum zurück. Sie sang die Besonders gerühmt wurde er für seinen Billy Music sein Dirigierdebüt mit der überaus der Schirmherrschaft der Peter Moores Rolle des Fuchses in Rachel Portmans neuer Budd, Pelléas, Eugene Onegin, Ulisse und erfolgreichen Aufführung von Albert Herring. Foundation teilgenommen. Oper The Little Prince, die im Jahr 2004 auf Beckmesser sowie für die großen Mozart- Inzwischen kann er auf ebenso erfolgreiche BBC 2 gesendet wurde. Rollen Graf Almaviva, Don Alfonso, Papageno, Produktionen von Don Giovanni und Così fan Seit 1976 gab es eine weitgehend in London Auf internationalen Bühnen ist Lesley Guglielmo und natürlich Don Giovanni. tutte an The Sage in Gateshead zurückblicken. lebende Kerngruppe von Barockmusikern, Garrett in ganz Europa, den USA, Australien, Zu seinen Engagements in jüngerer Zeit Bei den New Year’s Honours von 1989 wurde die in verschiedenen unabhängigen, von Russland, Brasilien, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan zählen Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Don er zum Commander of the British Empire und Spezialisten geleiteten Orchestern spielten. und Südkorea aufgetreten. Im Rahmen der Alfonso, Ulisse und Don Giovanni an der bei den Queen’s Birthday Honours des Jahres Die folgenden zehn Jahre sahen eine enorme New Year’s Honours List des Jahres 2002 Bayerischen Staatsoper; Prosdocimo 1999 zum Knight Bachelor ernannt. Steigerung des musikalischen Niveaus und wurde sie für ihre Verdienste um die Musik (Il turco in Italia) und die Titelrolle in Sweeney der Spielsicherheit dieser Gruppe sowie auch mit einem CBE ausgezeichnet. Todd am Royal Opera House; Eisenstein auf Geoffrey Mitchells Gesangskarriere hat ihm einen fundamentalen Wandel in der Art des dem Glyndebourne Festival; Don Alfonso an ein bemerkenswert breitgefächertes Repertoire Musizierens. Der aus Seaham in der Grafschaft Durham der Lyric Opera of Chicago sowie auf dem von der alten bis zur neuen Musik beschert 1986 gründete eine Gruppe von Spielern gebürtige Sir Thomas Allen (Don Alfonso) Oster- und dem Sommerfestival in Salzburg; und ihn nach Skandinavien, Deutschland, ein selbstverwaltetes Orchester mit

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 50-51 2/3/08 14:28:47 historischen Instrumenten – das Orchestra Orchestra. Zudem ist es eines der Resident Als Assistant Conductor am Londoner Cellokonzert eingespielt. Für die Chandos- of the Age of Enlightenment. Der Name Orchestras im Londoner Southbank Opernhaus Sadler’s Wells dirigierte er 1951 Serie “Opera in English” hat er Osud, spiegelt zum einen den Zeitraum, innerhalb Centre; eine weitere feste Konzertreihe die erste Aufführung von Katja Kabanowa La traviata, Werther, Julius Caesar, Mary dessen ein Großteil des dargebotenen hat es im Südwesten Englands. Anlässlich in der englischsprachigen Welt und brachte Stuart, Eugene Onegin, Jenu˚fa, The Magic Repertoires entstanden ist – obwohl die seines einundzwanzigjährigen Bestehens später auch Die Sache Makropulos und Flute, The Bartered Bride, The Makropulos Grenzen sich heute eher bis zur Musik des wurden sechs große Männer, die in der Aus einem Totenhaus nach Sadler’s Wells. Case und Hansel and Gretel aufgenommen. deutlich nach der Aufklärung anzusiedelnden Geschichte des Orchesters entscheidende Hocherfolgreiche Inszenierungen von Janácˇeks Sir Charles hat auch die Musik des erstrecken –, und zum Rollen spielten, zu Prinzipalen (Iván Fischer, Opern sowie vertrautere Werke aus dem 18. Jahrhunderts erforscht, insbesondere anderen das Ethos des Entdeckens. Es gab Vladimir Jurowski und Sir Simon Rattle) Standardrepertoire leitete er auch während Händel und Mozart. Er hat eine Reihe von und gibt keinen designierten Dirigenten, und Emeritus-Dirigenten (Frans Brüggen, seiner Zeit als Musikdirektor der English Mozart-Opern und Gilbert-und-Sullivan- stattdessen werden Dirigenten oder (häufig) Sir Charles Mackerras und Sir Roger National Opera (1970 –77) und der Welsh Operetten sowie Gesamtaufnahmen der Leiter vom Violinpult oder Tasteninstrument Norrington) ernannt. Die beiden Geigerinnen National Opera (1987–1992). In ganz Europa, Sinfonien von Mozart, Beethoven und projektweise engagiert, wobei auch Musiker Alison Bury und Margaret Faultless teilen den USA und Australien gilt er als Wegbereiter Brahms, mehrere Oratorien von Händel berücksichtigt werden, an die man im sich das erste Pult. Das Orchestra of the der Musik Janácˇeks. Jenu˚fa ist ihm besonders sowie Sinfonien von Mahler und Elgar Zusammenhang mit einem auf historischen Age of Enlightenment behauptet weiterhin ans Herz gewachsen. vorgelegt. Derzeit ist er Hauptgastdirigent Instrumenten spielenden Orchester sonst eher seine herausragende Stellung und begeistert Name verbindet sich seit langem mit des , Conductor nicht denken würde. Die Welt hat schnell seine Zuhörer immer wieder mit seinem der Tschechischen Philharmonie, mit der Laureate des Scottish Chamber Orchestra erkannt, dass es sich bei dem Orchestra of the dynamischen, ausgefeilten, charakteristischen er die meisten Orchesterwerke Janácˇeks, sowie Conductor Emeritus der Welsh Age of Enlightenment um ein ganz besonderes und zugleich außergewöhnlichen Spiel. Katja Kabanowa und Dvorˇáks Rusalka National Opera und der San Francisco Opera. Ensemble handelt, dessen Spiel von einer aufgenommen hat. Seine umfangreiche Sir Charles wurde 1974 mit dem britischen Energie beseelt ist, die aus dem gesamten Sir Charles Mackerras studierte am Diskographie enthält einen preisgekrönten Verdienstorden CBE ausgezeichnet, 1979 zum Klangkörper heraus entsteht und nicht aus Konservatorium in Sydney und kam 1947 Zyklus von Janácˇek-Opern mit den Wiener Ritter geschlagen, 1996 mit der Ehrenmedaille einer einzigen inspirierten Galionsfigur. nach England. Von der Kulturorganisation Philharmonikern aus den frühen achtziger der Tschechischen Republik gewürdigt und Einundzwanzig Jahre später ist das erhielt er ein Stipendium Jahren. Für Chandos hat er Janácˇeks 1997 zum Companion of the Order of Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment zur Erweiterung seines Studiums an der Glagolitische Messe in der Originalfassung, Australia ernannt. 2003 erhob ihn Königin immer noch weithin gefragt. Neben Musikakademie Prag. In jenem Jahr begann Kodálys Psalmus Hungaricus und Dvorˇáks Elizabeth II. zum Companion of Honour. zahlreichen Konzertverpflichtungen sitzt es seine Leidenschaft für die Musik Janácˇeks, weiterhin regelmäßig im Orchestergraben als er Katja Kabanowa unter der Leitung des von Glyndebourne als dessen Associate großen Václav Talich hörte.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 52-53 2/3/08 14:28:47 On session: Janice Watson On session: Diana Montague

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 54-55 2/3/08 14:28:50 supplémentaires – Mozart dirigeant au moins traduction littérale d’une pièce contemporaine “toutes les beautés agissent de cette manière” la dernière – données pendant l’été de cette (comme ce fut le cas avec Le nozze di Figaro) année-là représentent une très belle réussite. ou la révision importante d’un autre livret Così fan tutte – “toutes les femmes agissent moment (une seule aria des plus brèves pour Mais après cela, Così fan tutte devint un genre contemporain (Don Giovanni) qui étaient la de cette manière” – fut conçu sans trop de Don Alfonso). de Cendrillon parmi les œuvres de la maturité spécialité des librettistes du dix-huitième siècle. précipitation (mais composé à toute vitesse) Le nouvel opéra, avec un nombre surprenant de Mozart. La représentation viennoise suivante En fait, le livret de Così fan tutte (délibérément au cours de l’année 1789 sur un livret de coupures probablement effectuées pour dut attendre 1794. Pendant la plus grande partie sous-titré La scuola degli amanti, “L’École des préexistant de l’abbé Lorenzo da Ponte, le réduire le temps de répétition, fut créé au du dix-neuvième siècle, les commentateurs amants”) est largement tributaire de l’épopée poète officiel de l’opéra de la cour de Vienne Burgtheater de Vienne le 26 janvier 1790 et et les impresarios, avec Beethoven comme du seizième siècle de L’Arioste, Orlando furioso, et le collaborateur de Mozart pour Le nozze remporta (malgré les fréquents commentaires premier exemple célèbre, estimaient que le alors bien connue. Da Ponte en tira des noms di Figaro et Don Giovanni. La distribution affirmant le contraire) un assez beau succès. livret était immoral et trivial. Inévitablement, de personnages et des thèmes dramatiques fut choisie par les créateurs de l’ouvrage. La Le public de cette première fut le plus il fut expurgé ou profondément changé pour et – dans un genre de jeu de devinettes que maîtresse du moment du librettiste (et comme large de toute la saison 1789/1790, et les les représentations. On considérait que Mozart beaucoup de ses spectateurs viennois plus prêtre n’ayant pas le droit de se marier, da commentaires de journaux intimes et les avait commis une grave erreur de jugement avertis devaient apprécier – des emprunts et Ponte en eut beaucoup) Adriana Ferraresi del comptes rendus qui nous sont parvenus étaient en parant un tel sujet de sa “divine” musique. adaptations de phrases et d’images entières. Bene chanta le rôle de Fiordiligi. Da Ponte favorables. L’ouvrage eut quatre représentations Cette situation changea à partir de 1897 quand Il pilla librement ses propres livrets Il finto l’appelait son “malheur”; il était très franc supplémentaires avant la mort quelques plusieurs chefs (et compositeurs) importants cieco et Una cosa rara. Le thème central des concernant son manque de séduction évidente, semaines plus tard de l’empereur Joseph II, revinrent à Mozart et au texte de da Ponte. amants testant leur fidélité par le recours mais il aimait ses yeux et sa bouche. Mozart l’inconsistant mécène de Mozart. Ce fut une Richard Strauss dirigea une version préparée par au déguisement était également un moyen confia le personnage de Don Alfonso à son double malchance pour le compositeur: les Herman Levi (le chef de la création de Parsifal) à dramatique ayant fait ses preuves; des exemples premier Bartolo/Antonio et Commandeur/ théâtres restèrent fermés pendant toute la Munich, Gustave Mahler à Vienne, Sir Thomas remontaient à Zeus dans la mythologie Masetto, Despina à son premier Cherubino période de deuil de la cour juste au moment où Beecham à Londres et Fritz Busch – en 1934 grecque, aux Métamorphoses d’Ovide ou plus et Guglielmo à son premier Figaro. Comme Così fan tutte trouvait son rythme, et le nouvel dans une mise en scène de Carl Ebert dans le récemment avec les couples mis à l’épreuve il avait déjà écrit pour les autres chanteurs, empereur, Léopold II, n’aimait pas beaucoup cadre du nouveau Festival de Glyndebourne qui dans A Midsummer Night’s Dream de Mozart connaissait bien toutes les voix; il Mozart, ni da Ponte (qui fut renvoyé), ni la au tout premier enregistrement de l’opéra. Shakespeare et dans La Dispute de Marivaux tira profit de leurs points forts (une aria à distribution qu’ils avaient choisie (certains Qu’est-ce qui était donc considéré si (1744, et un succès à Vienne). deux tempos mettant en valeur un grand des chanteurs furent aussi renvoyés), ni l’opera choquant, immoral ou trivial dans le texte de Il n’y avait donc rien de particulièrement registre vocal (“Par pitié, pardonne-moi” pour buffa (“opéra non tragique”) en général. Dans l’opéra? Le poème de da Ponte semblait être nouveau ou d’effrayant ici. Et pourtant, le Fiordiligi) et tint compte des limitations du de telles circonstances, les cinq représentations l’un de ses plus “originaux”, et non pas la compositeur de la cour Antonio Salieri – le

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 56-57 2/3/08 14:28:50 premier musicien à qui da Ponte avait proposé Dans l’aria de l’Acte I, “Tu cherches la Viennent ensuite les plaisanteries internes. avances de Ferrando (déguisé), nous dit qu’elle son livret – abandonna la composition dès le moralité chez les hommes, les soldats”, Le titre principal de l’ouvrage est une citation a vu “un aspic, une hydre, un basilic”, elle deuxième Trio d’hommes à l’Acte I, déclarant Despina se moque des militaires – dont Vienne d’une œuvre précédente de Mozart et da ne décrit probablement pas quelque peinture que le texte n’était pas digne d’être mis en était remplie en 1790 – et leur moralité du Ponte – “così fan tutte le belle”, “toutes les mythologique orientale. Le sexe ne semble musique. (Un coup d’œil aux esquisses montre genre “embrasse-les et quitte-les”. Les hommes beautés agissent de cette manière”, provient de pas non plus s’arrêter aux allusions grivoises. que sa musique manque presque entièrement déguisés en Albanais évoquent les guerres en Le nozze di Figaro – tandis que la description Par exemple, la musique et l’image de l’aria l’ironie des deux jeunes officiers vantant les cours entre l’Autriche et les puissances de des sœurs Fiordiligi et Dorabella comme de Dorabella à l’Acte II “L’amour est un petit mérites de leurs amantes à Don Alfonso.) Et l’“Est”, en particulier la Turquie, toujours “dames de Ferrare” dans la distribution fait voleur”, représente sûrement l’excitation et Salieri – pas tant l’ennemi de Mozart que la cible de l’humour cru du théâtre viennois référence à la chanteuse Adriana Ferraresi del le témoignage de la première expérience de le théâtre et le cinéma du vingtième siècle (comme dans Die Entführung aus dem Serail Bene et à la croyance alors populaire selon l’amour sexuel de quelqu’un. aimaient imaginer – était aux yeux de da Ponte de Mozart). En effet, la réaction répétée de laquelle les dames de cette ville étaient de Le compositeur français Reynaldo Hahn, supérieur à Mozart en raison de sa vaste culture Despina devant la première apparition des petite vertu. Le fait qu’elles étaient sœurs un interprète mozartien expérimenté, a et de son savoir-faire littéraire. Sûrement, lui amants déguisés est typique de ce que l’on serait-il une allusion à la cour que Mozart écrit que Le nozze di Figaro et Don Giovanni plus que tout autre aurait dû apprécier les pourrait appeler le commentaire du jour d’un fit aux demoiselles Weber, rejeté par Aloysia sont les œuvres d’un amateur comparées à références classiques de da Ponte! tabloïde – “Quels visages! Quelles moustaches! puis accepté par Constanze? Un nombre assez Così fan tutte. En plus du contenu verbal et Et pourtant, il semble qu’une situation Je me demande ce qu’ils sont – Wallachiens ou important de modifications furent apportées psychologique du livret de da Ponte, le calme se soit développée comme celle qui vit les Turcs”. Despina apparaît presque comme le au livret soumis à Salieri quand le projet radicalisme de la musique de Mozart pouvait à bons citoyens de la Venise du milieu du dix- porte-parole de l’homme de la rue de l’époque devint celui de Mozart, probablement selon sa peine plaire aux esprits conservateurs. Outre la neuvième siècle (et leurs censeurs) contraindre et des observations sociales de Mozart et de da suggestion. manière dont il reflète le texte et les émotions Verdi à représenter La traviata, son drame Ponte. Et à l’Acte I, son idée du “remède” du Puis viennent directement les images par des détails instrumentaux illustratifs que contemporain des femmes entretenues dans docteur contre le poison met littéralement sur sexuelles. À l’origine l’action de l’opéra était l’on pourrait qualifier de romantiques, il inséra le Paris de l’époque, en costume et décors scène (avec l’aimant) le magnétisme de Franz située à Trieste. Le déplacement à Naples fut une grande partie du contenu de l’histoire Louis XIV lors de la création. Salieri, et après Anton Mesmer qui, dans la vie courante était sans aucun doute effectué pour tirer profit dans l’écriture des ensembles, un aspect alors lui bon nombre d’interprètes, de promoteurs un ami et un correspondant régulier de Mozart de la réputation de cette ville du sud comme presque unique, et qui constitue un autre et de spectateurs, était choqué par l’approche et de sa famille. Ce théâtre du burlesque – étant un palais doré du vice, et de la présence mouvement vers la narration opératique très moderne de Così fan tutte concernant le annonçant presque sa comédie “populaire” du Vésuve en éruption (visible à l’arrière plan continue qu’il avait développée dans le Finale sexe, les personnages et ce qui pouvait être Die Zauberflöte – déconcerta peut-être encore dans le décor), une analogie flagrante de de l’Acte II de Figaro. utilisé et discuté sur scène. En premier lieu, il y plus ceux qui attendaient un opera buffa plus l’excitation sexuelle à cette époque comme De nos jours, nous découvrons une avait les évidentes références contemporaines. retenu de la part d’un compositeur “classique”. de nos jours. Et quand Fiordiligi, fuyant les profondeur psychologique fascinante dans

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 58-59 2/3/08 14:28:51 ce que nos ancêtres considéraient comme d’amour personnel, ou est-il à la manière fussent-elles, continuèrent à être utilisées et à leur nouveau réalisme qui déplut et défia les immoral et qualifiaient de trivial.Così fan d’un Prospero l’éducateur des jeunes gens exploitées au plus bas de l’échelle sociale. commentateurs pendant cent ans, ne peuvent tutte peut paraître maintenant un drame plus concernant les expériences fondamentales de Mais d’autre part, les femmes de ces opéras pas complètement terminer leur pièce de cette profond et plus universel que Le nozze di l’existence? Despina est-elle une conspiratrice conduisent le drame de manière plus active que manière. Don Alfonso conclut “Je vous ai Figaro ou Don Giovanni car il ne repose pas cynique achetée par l’argent de Don Alfonso, dans la plupart des opéras buffa, et l’accusation trompé, mais ma tromperie a détrompé vos sur un contexte politique ou social spécifique une conseillère réaliste sinon d’une franchise de sexisme régulièrement portée contre Così amants, qui ainsi seront plus sages et agiront (comme les querelles entre aristocrates et brutale auprès des jeunes femmes en matière fan tutte est quelque peu contredite par la comme je le souhaite… embrassez-vous et ne domestiques des autres opéras de da Ponte), de sexualité, ou une semeuse de zizanie de la manière sans retenue avec laquelle Fiordiligi et dites rien de plus”. Ferrando et Guglielmo mais sur un contexte humain. Les couples de classe prolétaire (comme Figaro et Leporello) Dorabella viennent embrasser leurs nouveaux acceptent l’intention de leurs amantes “de vous l’opéra ne sont pas seulement engagés dans ayant des idées choyées de classes moyennes amants qui, sous leur déguisement albanais, adorer de plus en plus”, mais seulement avec des intrigues sexuelles mais également dans et supérieures? Et sait-elle que les “Albanais” représentent un incroyable écart de conduite la mise en garde “Je te crois, ma belle, mais je la question de l’honnêteté envers eux-mêmes sont en réalité Ferrando et Guglielmo, ou pour des bourgeoises aussi convenables. ne te mettrai pas à l’épreuve”. Despina, qui se et envers les autres. C’est presque de la est-elle aussi choquée par leur révélation finale Et que peut-on dire de la fin? Est-il vraiment demande si elle ne rêve pas, se sent “confuse” psychanalyse à Vienne cent ans avant Freud. qu’elle le prétend, ou par le fait qu’elle a été possible de restaurer le statu quo après tant de et “honteuse”, et menace de se venger – “Ils Quelle est la motivation du défi lancé par copieusement roulée par tout le monde? Toutes peine et tant de contact direct avec un autre m’ont peut-être menée en barque mais j’en Don Alfonso à Ferrando et Guglielmo? Les ces options sont parfaitement possibles, et (ou autres) partenaire? Le couple plus buffo et duperai bien d’autres”. Alors seulement les deux jeunes officiers croient-ils vraiment leurs jouables – même en se tenant à une lecture plus superficiel – Dorabella, Guglielmo – ne acteurs sortent-ils de leur caractère pour vantardises à propos de leurs amantes (qu’ils strictement littérale du texte et de la musique. se sont-ils pas découverts l’un l’autre aussi offrir au public un conseil abstrait et éclairé: semblent à peine connaître), ou cherchent-ils Les idées de la Révolution française, qui se assurément que le couple plus poétique et plus “Heureux l’homme qui considère toute chose en fait si l’opposé est vrai? Leur déguisement déroulait au moment même de la création de prévenant (et aux voix plus élevées) Fiordiligi et du bon côté et qui par des épreuves et des est-il délibérément excessif et peu convaincant? l’opéra, eurent un effet certain sur Così fan Ferrando? Pour le dix-huitième siècle, et pour tribulations prend la raison pour guide”. Dans les cent manières différentes de mettre tutte, quoique de manière moins manifeste que Mozart et da Ponte, cela ne posait absolument © 2008 Mike Ashman en scène Così fan tutte depuis son entrée au sur Le nozze di Figaro ou Don Giovanni. Sur aucun problème. L’“écart de conduite” s’est répertoire régulier dans les années 1950, les le plan négatif, les réformes du Tiers État ne produit selon les unités classiques de temps interprétations ont tout particulièrement devaient jamais atteindre l’empire autrichien (un jour de l’aube au crépuscule) et de lieu Une note du chef d'orchestre mis l’accent sur les motivations exactes sous une quelconque forme littérale. Les (malgré la scène d’ouverture dans le café où Così fan tutte, sous le titre de School of Lovers, des personnages. Don Alfonso est-il un prolétaires restèrent prolétaires (même quand les hommes font leur pari), et se termine fut représenté en 1890 au Savoy Theatre de cynique sans cœur et sexiste prêt à susciter Napoléon entra dans Vienne) et les Despina simplement à la fin de la pièce. Mais le Londres par des étudiants du Royal College of des troubles pour compenser quelque mal de ce monde, aussi intelligentes et spirituelles compositeur et son librettiste, conformément Music, un établissement créé sept ans plus tôt.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 60-61 2/3/08 14:28:51 Le directeur du Collège, Sir Charles Villiers Bien qu’écrite environ cent ans après le texte en anglais. Così fan tutte, représenté pour la son intégralité, j’ai choisi d’enregistrer cette Stanford, était à la direction, et une nouvelle de Da Ponte, la version de Browne semble première fois à Londres en 1811, avait été version anglaise de Così fan tutte avec les traduction anglaise avait été réalisée pour posséder un parfum proche de Pope ou de joué au Royal English Opera sous le titre de coupures traditionnelles, ce qui lui confère cette exécution du centenaire par le révérend Sheridan. Ses rimes les plus bizarres sont peut- Tit for Tat ou The Tables Turned! en 1828. un caractère plus proche d’une exécution sur Marmaduke E. Browne. Browne était chef de être celles du célèbre résumé de Don Alfonso: On peut se demander à quoi ressemblait scène. chœur et organiste, et bien qu’un sujet d’opéra “Spite of wisdom, folly, plainness or beauty, cette version altérée et adaptée de Così fan En ce qui concerne le style d’interprétation ait pu sembler quelque peu inconvenant pour every woman’s the same, Così fan tutte.” tutte, en particulier si l’on songe qu’il y avait de cet enregistrement, c’est vraiment un un ecclésiastique, les rimes de Browne sont (faisant rimer “beauty” avec “tutte” et non une seconde pièce à l’affiche,The Bottle Imp! plaisir d’entendre l’Orchestra of the Age of souvent extrêmement spirituelles, même si pas avec “tutti”!) (d’après une légende populaire allemande)! Enlightenment prêter son expertise de la parfois elles s’éloignent considérablement [Malgré sagesse, folie, sans beauté ou avec Lors de la création à Vienne en 1790, couleur tonale, du phrasé et de l’impulsion de l’original de Da Ponte. Considérez les beauté, toutes les femmes sont les mêmes, Mozart autorisa l’omission de nombreux rythmique à la merveilleuse partition de premiers mots des jeunes filles amoureuses Così fan tutte.] passages dans la partition, pour quelle Mozart. Naturellement, tous nos chanteurs contemplant avec ravissement les portraits de La traduction de Browne était encore raison nul ne le sait, car plusieurs passages utilisent fréquemment l’appogiatura vocale, leurs amants: en usage au Sadler’s Wells pendant les véritablement sublimes furent ainsi coupés, cette inflexion dans laquelle la première de “This portrait alone is années 1960 malgré l’utilisation générale notamment le quatuor en forme de canon au deux ou trois syllabes d’un mot est chantée The face of Adonis” [Seul ce visage des nouvelles traductions de E.J. Dent de début du second finale. De nous jours, ces sur une note supérieure (ou inférieure) à celle parfait est le visage d’Adonis] nombreux opéras célèbres. Quand j’ai dirigé coupures aussi radicales ne sont généralement écrite. Ceci aide à pointer le texte et à lui auquel répond: Così fan tutte au London Coliseum pour la pas effectuées, mais traditionnellement, deux donner une accentuation d’une plus grande “Ah, then it must follow merveilleuse production de John Cox en numéros sont omis, un duo pour hommes à fluidité. That this is Apollo.” [Ah, alors celui-ci 1980, nous avons encore utilisé la version de l’Acte I et la troisième aria de Ferrando, “Ah lo Les chanteurs de Mozart pour Così fan doit être Apollon] Browne avec plusieurs révisions de John Cox, veggio”, préservant ainsi le statu quo de deux tutte étaient tous éminents et exécutaient Ou prenez la diatribe contre les femmes de celles-ci ayant pour but principal de rendre arias par personnage comme dans la plupart automatiquement des cadences aux fermatas Guglielmo. À l’endroit ou Da Ponte répète les le texte anglais plus proche de ce que voulait des opéras comiques de cette époque. De et ajoutaient ici et là des ornementations aux mots “la fate a tanti e tanti” encore et encore, dire Da Ponte et les rythmes musicaux plus la même manière, des brèves coupures sont lignes vocales dans les arias. Browne varie habillement à chaque répétition: proches de l’original de Mozart. C’est cette traditionnellement faites dans le duo entre Dans le cas de cet opéra, on a la chance de “Ladies have such variations, permutations, version du texte de Brown que l’on a utilisée Ferrando et Fiordiligi, dans le chœur du finale posséder une version ornementée de la fin du fluctuations”, “Alas their vacillations, dans le présent enregistrement. de l’Acte II et dans de nombreux récitatifs. dix-huitième siècle aujourd’hui conservée à la complications”, “the ladies’ retractions, En fait, cette production d’étudiants de Bien que de nos jours les enregistrements Bibliothèque Fürstenberg de Donaueschingen. abjurations,”, “aberrations, hesitations”, etc. 1890 n’était pas la première à être donnée d’opéras tendent à présenter un ouvrage dans Plusieurs de ces ornementations et cadences, en

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 62-63 2/3/08 14:28:52 particulier dans les arias de Fiordiligi, ont été faisant semblant d’être bouleversé, il annonce 26 Guglielmo et Ferrando arrivent déguisés contact physique avec les deux jeunes femmes utilisées dans le présent enregistrement. que leurs prétendants “sont tous les deux (Despina se demande s’ils sont “Turcs” redonnent santé aux “Albanais”, mais Fiordiligi appelés au service actif” et qu’ils doivent partir ou “Slovaques”) et font des déclarations et Dorabella ne sont pas encore prêtes à céder. © 2008 Sir Charles Mackerras “ce matin”. 12 – 13 Il autorise un bref adieu, et d’amour passionné à Fiordiligi et Dorabella. riant de l’angoisse excessive des jeunes femmes, 27 – 30 Pour renforcer leurs supplications, Acte II Synopsis il avertit les deux hommes que le jeu ne fait Don Alfonso prétend qu’ils sont de vieux Une pièce dans la maison des deux sœurs que commencer. 14 – 17 Des soldats arrivent amis, mais les deux sœurs restent indifférentes 4 Taquinées de nouveau puis persuadées par COMPACT DISC ONE pour emmener Ferrando et Guglielmo dans aux flatteries, en particulier Fiordiligi Despina, 5 – 6 “une femme à quinze ans doit un bateau; 18 – 19 Fiordiligi, Dorabella et Don qui se tient “telle une forteresse”. 31 – 33 être sage et connaître le monde”, Fiordiligi et 1 Ouverture Alfonso leur souhaitent bon voyage, “O vent Guglielmo, Ferrando et Don Alfonso rient de Dorabella décident qu’“il n’y a rien de honteux à Acte I soupirant doucement”. leur apparente victoire (“de la part d’yeux si chercher une diversion à la mélancolie”. 7 – 8 Un café aguichants, notre espoir est assuré”. Dorabella, l’amante de Ferrando, choisit de 2 – 4 Deux jeunes officiers, Ferrando et Une pièce joliment décorée dans la maison des flirter avec le garçon “plutôt brun”, Guglielmo, Guglielmo, vantent à leur vieil ami Don deux sœurs COMPACT DISC TWO et Fiordiligi avec “le blond”, Ferrando. Alfonso la fidélité de leurs amantes, les sœurs 20 – 21 Despina, la femme de chambre de Fiordiligi et Dorabella. 5 – 6 Don Alfonso Fiordiligi et Dorabella, se lamente de sa Un beau jardin avec deux talus herbeux Dans le jardin en bord de mer parie 100 zecchini qu’il pourra leur prouver cet condition de domestique qu’elle qualifie de 1 – 2 Les “Albanais” prétendent avaler 9 – 11 Les deux nouveaux prétendants ont après-midi même qu’elles sont comme toutes “vie de chien”. 22 – 24 Quand Dorabella de l’arsenic à cause de leur désespoir de ne organisé une sérénade en plein air. Une fois les autres femmes – d’un tempérament infidèle. parle d’“expirer dans les chagrins de l’amour”, pouvoir être aimés par les deux sœurs; Don terminée, Despina et Don Alfonso laissent Ils acceptent le pari et promettent, sur leur Despina conseille à ses maîtresses de s’amuser Alfonso et Despina encouragent Fiordiligi et les quatre jeunes gens se débrouiller seuls. 12 honneur de soldat, d’exécuter tout ce que Don pendant que leurs amants sont absents, et se Dorabella à “soutenir tendrement” les deux Guglielmo flirte avec Dorabella, et lui offre un Alfonso leur demandera de faire et de ne rien moque de leur croyance en la “constance des hommes en train de mourir – et partent médaillon qu’elle accepte, provoquant en lui dire aux deux sœurs. gentilshommes et des soldats”. Les deux sœurs chercher un médecin. Juste au moment où les horreur et fascination. Il parvient en suite à s’enfuient horrifiées par cette idée. deux sœurs admettent être prises de “pitié”, enlever le médaillon de Dorabella contenant le Un jardin en bord de mer 3 le médecin (Despina est déguisée, mais portait de Ferrando. 13 Fortement attirés l’un 7 – 8 Fiordiligi et Dorabella soupirent en 25 Despina n’est pas contente de voir Don seuls Guglielmo et Ferrando la reconnaissent) vers l’autre, le couple accepte “l’exquise douleur contemplant les portraits de leurs bien-aimés, Alfonso, une ancienne connaissance, mais il arrive, faisant étalage de connaissances de l’invitation au plaisir”. 14 – 16 Fiordiligi, mais Fiordiligi avoue qu’elle a “une frivole achète son aide pour présenter des prétendants linguistiques et proposant un remède inventé malgré une attirance sexuelle semblable envers envie d’aventure. 9 – 11 Don Alfonso arrive; nouveaux aux deux jeunes femmes. par le “Dr Mesmer”. L’aimant et beaucoup de Ferrando, lui résiste – pour le moment – et

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 64-65 2/3/08 14:28:53 demande à l’absent Guglielmo de lui 9 – 11 Don Alfonso encourage les perdants, Elle est aussi surprise et horrifiée que Fiordiligi l’Opéra des Pays-Bas et au Royal Opera de pardonner ses désirs intérieurs, “Ah, mon pendant qu’ils sont encore tenus par leur et Dorabella. Don Alfonso excuse sa manière Covent Garden; Gloriana de Britten au Festival amour, j’implore le pardon”. promesse envers lui, à se “marier” avec leurs d’agir en affirmant que “je voulais seulement d’Aldeburgh; la Comtesse Almaviva et Salome nouvelles amantes. Il leur demande de répéter les persuader que rien n’est parfait ici-bas”. au Deutsche Staatsoper de Berlin; Micaëla COMPACT DISC THREE les paroles avec lesquelles il les avait mis en Il encourage une réconciliation générale: les (Carmen) au Lyric Opera de Chicago et au garde: “Così fan tutte”. sœurs prétendent que leur pénitence sera Metropolitan Opera de New York, la Comtesse 1 – 4 Les deux hommes comparent leurs “beaucoup plus fidèle que les vœux que j’ai Almaviva et Liù au Metropolitan Opera. Elle notes: Guglielmo, un peu trop sûr de lui, Dans une salle illuminée rompus”, tandis que Guglielmo et Ferrando chante régulièrement à l’English National écoute parler de la fidélité de Fiordiligi, puis 12 – 13 Le mariage de Fiordiligi et Dorabella promettent “de ne plus chercher la preuve”. Opera (récemment avec le rôle de la Maréchale montre à Ferrando le médaillon de Dorabella. avec leurs nouveaux amants est richement 16 Tous font les louanges de l’homme qui, avec dans Der Rosenkavalier et ) Don Alfonso propose un nouvel assaut contre célébré. 14 Un notaire (Despina sous un calme, prend strictement la vie telle qu’elle est. et au Welsh National Opera (récemment dans la vertu de Fiordiligi. nouveau déguisement) arrive pour conduire la Ariadne de Strauss). Elle a interprété le rôle © 2008 Mike Ashman cérémonie officielle; elle lance de nombreuses titre de Kat'á Kabanová au Royal Opera de Traduction: Francis Marchal Une pièce dans la maison des deux sœurs citations en latin de cuisine et aux Covent Garden, et à son début à La Scala 5 Despina félicite Dorabella d’“agir comme “Albanais” les noms de Leander et Philander. de Milan. une femme sensée”; 6 Dorabella reconnaît que Les deux sœurs signent quand un roulement Janice Watson (Fiordiligi) a étudié à la Au concert, elle a chanté sous la direction “l’amour jeune est implacable”. 7 Fiordiligi de tambour et des voix de soldats interrompent Guildhall School of Music and Drama de de chefs tels que Sir Roger Norrington, André les maudit toutes les deux pour essayer que la cérémonie: Ferrando et Guglielmo sont Londres, et s’est fait remarquer en remportant Previn, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Sir Colin “le monde entier conspire à me faire céder”. revenus de la guerre. Les “Albanais” et le le memorial award. Davis, Riccardo Chailly, Frans Brüggen, Elle donne l’ordre à Despina d’aller chercher notaire se cachent, 15 puis Ferrando et À l’opéra, elle a chanté des rôles tels que Sir Neville Marriner et Bernard Haitink. les uniformes de rechange de leurs amants, Guglielmo apparaissent en uniforme. Ils Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) à l’Opéra de Paris; Janice Watson a enregistré pour Chandos et décide de se déguiser avec Dorabella pour sont perplexes devant la réaction des deux Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito) à l’Opéra des le rôle titre dans Jenu˚fa (dans la série “Opera aller au champ de bataille y chercher leurs femmes – “silencieuse” et “teintée d’une Flandres; Daphne, Arabella, Salome de Strauss in English”), le Gloria de Poulenc, la Missa vrais amants. 8 Mais Ferrando, poussé par larme” – jusqu’au moment où ils découvrent et Elettra (Idomeneo) au Festival de Santa Fe; Sabrinensis de Howells, et Ellen Orford dans Guglielmo et Don Alfonso, fait un dernier le notaire et le contrat de mariage. Ils sortent Daphne, Arabella et Eva (Die Meistersinger von Peter Grimes, un enregistrement qui a remporté effort pour conquérir Fiordiligi “la forteresse” précipitamment pour aller se “venger” de leurs Nürnberg) à l’Opéra de San Francisco; Pamina, un Grammy Award. et parvient à ses fins. Elle lui cède en disant: “rivaux détestables”, puis reviennent à moitié la Comtesse Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) et “Oh, Dieu, je suis vaincue, fais de moi ce que déguisés pour révéler tout le stratagème, et Arabella au Bayerishe Staatsoper; Ellen Orford Née Angleterre à Winchester, Diana Montague tu veux”. tourner en ridicule leurs pitreries avec Despina. (Peter Grimes) au Staatsoper de Vienne, à (Dorabella) a étudié au Royal Northern College

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 66-67 2/3/08 14:28:53 of Music de Manchester. Depuis ses débuts dans La riche discographie de Diana Montague di Figaro), Achilla (Giulio Cesare) et pour la Diplômé du New College d’Oxford où il a le rôle de Zerlina avec le Glyndebourne Touring inclut Orfeo de Monteverdi, I Capuleti e i première fois celui de Papageno. Au Bayerische été “Choral scholar”, Toby Spence (Ferrando) Opera, elle s’est produite au Royal Opera de Montecchi, Norma, Iphigénie en Tauride; pour Staatsoper de Munich, il s’est produit dans a étudié à la Guildhall School of Music and Covent Garden, au Metropolitan Opera de New Opera Rara Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, Zoraida di Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia), Guglielmo, Drama de Londres. York, au Théâtre de la Monnaie de Bruxelles, Granata et Il crociato in Egitto, et dans la série Marcello (La Bohème) et Albert (Werther). Très Il a fait ses débuts lyriques avec Idamante à l’Opéra national de Paris-Bastille, au Teatro de Chandos “Opera in English”, Cherubino acclamé pour son interprétation de Billy Budd, (Idomeneo) au Welsh National Opera, et a Colón de Buenos Aires, au Festival de Bayreuth (Le nozze di Figaro), Idamante (Idomeneo), il a chanté ce rôle au Welsh National Opera, au depuis repris ce rôle au Scottish Opera et et au Festival de Salzbourg. Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Octavian dans Teatro Regio de Turin, à Seattle et à Munich. au Bayerische Staatsoper de Munich où il a Son répertoire inclut les grands rôles de Der Rosenkavalier (extraits), le Marchand de Il a également interprété Don Giovanni à également chanté Ferrando, Ottavio, Telemaco mezzo-soprano dans des opéras de Mozart, sable (Hansel and Gretel ), Faust, et deux récitals The Sage, Gateshead, dans une nouvelle (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), et Acis (Acis Gluck, Strauss, Rossini, Bellini et Berlioz. dans la série “Great Operatic Arias”. production dirigée par Sir Thomas Allen; le and Galatea). Au Théâtre de la Monnaie de Parmi ses engagements, on citera Benvenuto Comte Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) à Vienne; Bruxelles, il a chanté Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) Cellini à l’Opéra de Rome; Iphigénie en Tauride Lauréat du Lieder Prize au Concours Papageno à San Francisco; Figaro (Il barbiere sous la direction de David Robertson et à Buenos Aires, Madrid et au Welsh National international de chant de Cardiff en 1997, di Siviglia) au Deutsche Staatsoper de Berlin David (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) Opera; Albert Herring, Cherubino (Le nozze di Christopher Maltman (Guglielmo) a étudié la et à San Diego; Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas) à sous la direction d’Antonio Pappano. Il s’est Figaro) et Andromaca dans Ermione de Rossini biochimie à l’Université de Warwick et le chant Vienne; Tarquinius au Festival d’Aldeburgh et produit à l’Opéra de San Francisco (dans à Glyndebourne; Isolier (Le Comte Ory) à à la Royal Academy of Music de Londres. à l’English National Opera; en 2008 il chantera Alcina), au Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (Hyllas Lausanne, Rome et Glyndebourne; Proserpina II a récemment fait ses débuts au le rôle titre dans Don Giovanni au Festival de dans Hercules de Haendel), au Staatsoper dans Orfeo de Monteverdi à Amsterdam; Metropolitan Opera de New York avec Salzbourg. de Hambourg (Ferrando), au Teatro Real Ariadne auf Naxos à Lisbonne; Marguerite Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos). Au Royal Opera En concert, Christopher Maltman a de Madrid (Tamino), au Grand Théâtre de (La Damnation de Faust) à Vienne et à de Covent Garden, il a créé le rôle de Sebastian travaillé avec des chefs tels que Christoph von Genève (David) et au Châtelet sous la direction Genève; Minerva (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria) à lors de la création mondiale de The Tempest Dohnányi, John Adams, Sir Roger Norrington, de Sir Simon Rattle dans la production du Amsterdam et à Sydney; Die Meistersinger von de Thomas Adès, et a également incarné Sir Simon Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Festival de Glyndebourne. Il a chanté le rôle Nürnberg au Royal Opera de Covent Garden, Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Ramiro (L’Heure Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Esa-Pekka Salonen de la Folle dans Curlew River de Britten au Junon dans Platée de Rameau avec le Royal espagnole), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), et Kurt Masur. Il a donné de nombreux Festival d’Édimbourg. Il a fait ses débuts à Opera au Festival d’Édimbourg et à Londres, Nardo (La finta giardiniera) et Papageno récitals en Grande-Bretagne et à l’étranger. Sa Santa Fe dans le rôle de Tamino et dans celui Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) à l’English (Die Zauberflöte). Au Festival de Glyndebourne, discographie inclut des mélodies de Warlock, de Ferdinand (The Tempest de Thomas Adès). National Opera, à Bilbao et au Teatro Real de il a interprété les rôles de Ned Keene (Peter Holst, Somervell, Strauss, Schubert, et le Il a établi des liens étroits avec l’English Madrid. Grimes), Sid (Albert Herring), Figaro (Le nozze Dichterliebe et le Liederkreis de Schumann. National Opera (dans La Belle Hélène), et

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 68-69 2/3/08 14:28:54 le Royal Opera de Covent Garden, dans South Bank Show de la BBC Television qui a ses débuts professionnels au Welsh National Glyndebourne; Don Alfonso au Lyric Opera La Cenerentola. également diffusé ses programmes musicaux Opera et est aujourd’hui l’une des grandes de Chicago, au Festival de Pâques et au Festival Toby Spence s’est produit en concert avec The Singer. stars des scènes lyriques dans le monde estival de Salzbourg; Forester (Le Petit Renard le London Symphony Orchestra, le Chœur et Lesley Garrett s’est produite au début de entier. Au Royal Opera de Covent Garden de rusé) à l’Opéra de San Francisco; Beckmesser et l’Orchestre Monteverdi, le Cleveland Orchestra, sa carrière lyrique au Wexford Festival, au Londres, où il a célébré en 2006 le trente- Don Alfonso au Metropolitan Opera de New la Philharmonie de Berlin, le San Francisco Welsh National Opera, à l’Opera North et cinquième anniversaire de ses débuts avec York. Au Royal Opera de Covent Garden il a Symphony, sous la direction de chefs tels que au Festival de Glyndebourne. Elle est ensuite cette compagnie, il a incarné plus de quarante chanté les roles du Père (Hansel und Gretel) et Sir Simon Rattle, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, devenue membre de l’English National Opera rôles. En 2006, il a également célébré le Gianni Schicchi. Michael Tilson-Thomas, Valéry Gergiev et en 1984 où elle a été la vedette de nombreuses vingt-cinquième anniversaire de ses débuts au Également renommé pour ses prestations Antonio Pappano. Il a donné des récitals au productions et s’est attiré les louanges de Metropolitan Opera de New York. C’est un en concert, il se produit en récital en Grande- Festival d’Édimbourg et à Londres à St Luke’s et la critique pour ses interprétations de rôles artiste acclamé au Lyric Opera de Chicago, Bretagne, à toute l’Europe, en Australie au Wigmore Hall. comiques et sérieux. Elle a fait ses débuts au à l’Opéra de San Francisco, à l’Opéra de et en Amérique, et a chanté avec les plus Royal Opera de Covent Garden dans Die Los Angeles, au Bayerische Staatsoper grands orchestres et chefs internationaux. Lesley Garrett (Despina) est la soprano la plus lustige Witwe en 1997. Plus récemment, elle est de Munich, à La Scala de Milan, ainsi Le premier livre de Thomas Allen, Foreign populaire de Grande-Bretagne. Se produisant revenue à l’English National Opera pour une qu’au Festival de Salzbourg et à celui de Parts – A Singer’s Journal a été publié en 1993 régulièrement à l’opéra, en concert, à la reprise de son rôle acclamé de Rosina dans Glyndebourne. et en 2003 il a fait des débuts de chef de télévision et au disque, elle a reçu les louanges Il barbiere di Siviglia de Rossini. Elle a Thomas Allen est tout particulièrement manière triomphale avec Albert Herring au des critiques et a conquis l’affection de interprété le rôle du Renard dans le nouvel salué pour ses interprétations de Billy Royal College of Music de Londres. Depuis, il nombreux fans et mélomanes. Sa discographie opéra de Rachel Portman, The Little Prince, Budd, Pelléas, Eugène Onéguine, Ulisse et a dirigé avec grand succès des productions de compte douze albums solos. Soprano in Red a diffusé par la BBC2 Television en 2004. Beckmesser, mais aussi pour les grands rôles Don Giovanni et de Così fan tutte à The Sage, obtenu le Gramophone Award dans la catégorie Lesley Garrett s’est produite à travers toute mozartiens tels que le Comte Almaviva, Gateshead. Nommé Commandeur de l’empire du “Best-selling Classical Artist of the Year”. l’Europe, les États-Unis, l’Australie, la Russie, Don Alfonso, Papageno, Guglielmo et, bien britannique (CBE) en 1989, il a été anobli en Sa série télévisée The Lesley Garrett Show au Brésil, au Japon, en Malaisie, à Taiwan et en entendu, Don Giovanni. Parmi ses récents 1999 (Knight Bachelor). présente des artistes invités tels que Marcello Corée du Sud. Elle a été nommée Commandeur engagements, on citera Eisenstein Alvarez, Ian Bostridge, Alison Moyet, Michael de l’empire britannique (CBE) en 2002 pour sa (Die Fledermaus), Don Alfonso, Ulisse et Durant sa carrière de chanteur, Ball, Maxim Vengerov, Joshua Bell, Renée contribution au monde de la musique. Don Giovanni au Bayerische Staatsoper; Geoffrey Mitchell aborda un répertoire Fleming, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Dmitri Prosdicimo (Il turco in Italia) et le rôle remarquablement varié, depuis la musique Hvorostovsky, Marti Pellow, Michel Legrand et Né en Angleterre à Seaham dans le comté de titre dans Sweeney Todd au Royal Opera de ancienne jusqu’à la musique contemporaine, Elaine Paige. Elle a été également le sujet d’un Durham, Sir Thomas Allen (Alfonso) a fait Covent Garden; Eisenstein au Festival de se produisant en Scandinavie, en Allemagne,

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 70-71 2/3/08 14:28:54 dans l’ancienne Tchécoslovaquie, au Canada répertoire s’étend aujourd’hui à Verdi – et pupitre de premier violon. L’Orchestra of the Il a entretenu une longue collaboration avec et en Australasie. Après avoir fait ses premières l’esprit de découverte. Il n’y avait pas de chef Age of Enlightenment maintient sa position la Philharmonie tchèque et a enregistré à la tête armes de chef d’orchestre avec la BBC, il unique. Au lieu de cela, des chefs et des éminente et continue à enthousiasmer de cette formation la plupart des œuvres pour décida de prendre une part active dans ce musiciens dirigeant du rang des violons ou le public par son jeu extraordinairement orchestre de Janácˇek, ainsi que Kat’á Kabanová domaine avec ses propres chanteurs et fonda d’un instrument à clavier étaient nommés d’un dynamique, subtil et plein de caractère. et Rusalka de Dvorˇák. Sa vaste discographie le Geoffrey Mitchell Choir. Par suite de ses concert à l’autre, élargissant instantanément inclut le cycle primé des opéras de Janácˇek premiers enregistrements l’ensemble travaille le champ pour inclure ceux qui autrement Sir Charles Mackerras étudia au Conservatoire réalisé avec le Wiener Philharmoniker au depuis longtemps avec Opera Rara pour qui n’auraient peut-être jamais face à un orchestre de Musique de Sydney et vint en Angleterre en début des années 1980. Pour Chandos, il il a réalisé plus de trente enregistrements. d’instruments d’époque. L’Orchestra of the 1947. Il obtint une bourse du British Council a enregistré la version originale de la Messe Ce Chœur ne cesse d’élargir sa réputation, Age of Enlightenment fut rapidement reconnu pour continuer ses études à l’Académie de Glagolitique de Janácˇek, le Psalmus Hungaricus travaillant avec la BBC et plusieurs maisons comme étant spécial, son jeu chargé d’une Musique de Prague. Son vif intérêt et sa de Kodály et le Concerto pour violoncelle de de disques internationales. Pour Chandos, le énergie provenant de tous ses membres, et passion pour la musique de Janácˇek commença Dvorˇák. Dans la série Opera in English, il a Geoffrey Mitchell Choir a participé à plusieurs non pas de l’inspiration d’une personnalité en 1947 après avoir entendu l’opéra Kat’á enregistré Osud, La traviata, Werther, Julius enregistrements pour Opera in English, une prestigieuse. Kabanová dirigé par le grand Václav Talich. Caesar, Mary Stuart, Eugene Onegin, Jenu˚fa, série de disques très prisés financée par la Peter Vingt et un ans plus tard, l’Orchestra C’est en qualité de chef assistant au Sadler’s The Magic Flute, The Bartered Bride, The Moores Foundation. of the Age of Enlightenment continue à Wells qu’il donna la première de Kat’á Makropulos Case et Hansel and Gretel. prospérer. Outre ses concerts, il se produit Kabanová dans un pays de langue anglaise Charles Mackerras a également fait Il existe depuis 1976 un nombre de musiciens régulièrement en sa qualité d’orchestre en 1951. Plus tard, il présenta L’Affaire d’importantes recherches dans le domaine baroques pour la plupart basés à Londres qui associé au Festival de Glyndebourne. Il est Makropoulos et La Maison des morts au Sadler’s de la musique du dix-huitième siècle, en jouent dans des ensembles dirigés de manière également orchestre résident au Southbank Wells. Il continua à diriger des productions particulier Haendel et Mozart. Il a enregistré autonome par des experts. Leur assurance et Centre de Londres et dans le sud-ouest de très acclamées d’opéras de Janácˇek ainsi que une série consacrée aux opéras de Mozart et leur niveau grandirent rapidement au cours des l’Angleterre. À l’occasion de ses vingt-et-un des ouvrages du répertoire habituel quand il à ceux de Gilbert et Sullivan, ainsi que les dix années suivantes, et la manière de faire de ans, six grands musiciens qui ont joué un devint directeur musical de l’English National cycles complets des symphonies de Mozart, la musique en fut transformée. rôle capital dans l’histoire de l’Orchestre ont Opera (1970 –1977), et au Welsh National Beethoven et Brahms, plusieurs oratorios de En 1986, un groupe d’instrumentistes été nommé artistes principaux (Iván Fischer, Opera dont il fut directeur musical de 1987 à Haendel et des symphonies de Mahler et Elgar. fonda un orchestre d’instruments d’époque Vladimir Jurowski et Sir Simon Rattle) et 1992. Il a été un défenseur de la musique de Il est actuellement chef principal invité du autonome – l’Orchestra of the Age of chefs émérites (Frans Brüggen, Sir Charles Janácˇek dans les capitales européennes, aux Philharmonia Orchestra, chef lauréat du Scottish Enlightenment. Ce nom reflétait la période Mackerras et Sir Roger Norrington). Alison USA et en Australie. Jenu˚fa est l’une de ses Chamber Orchestra et chef émérite du Welsh de la plupart des œuvres qu’ils jouaient – le Bury et Margaret Faultless partagent le œuvres préférées. National Opera et du San Francisco Opera.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 72-73 2/3/08 14:28:55 On session: Lesley Garrett Charles Mackerras fut nommé commandeur de l’empire britannique (CBE) en 1974 et anobli en 1979. Il a reçu la Médaille du Mérite de la République tchèque en 1996 et fait Companion of the Order of Australia en 1997. En 2003, la reine Elizabeth II l’a nommé Companion of Honour.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 74-75 2/3/08 14:28:57 considerarono immorale e triviale il libretto, (deliberatamente sottotitolato La scuola degli “così fan tutte le belle” che fu inevitabilmente espurgato o interamente amanti,) era molto legato a un famoso poema modificato per le rappresentazioni. Si pensò cavalleresco del XVI secolo, l’Orlando furioso Così fan tutte fu concepita con relativa calma il Burgtheater di Vienna il 26 gennaio 1790, che Mozart avesse commesso un grave errore di Ariosto. Da quest’opera da Ponte ricavò i (ma composta in fretta) durante il 1789 su un con discreto successo (nonostante si dica spesso di valutazione nella scelta di un soggetto nomi dei personaggi e i temi drammatici e – libretto esistente dell’abate Lorenzo da Ponte, il contrario). La prima richiamò il maggior del genere per la sua musica “divina”. Le in una sorta di gioco di citazioni che sarebbe poeta ufficiale dell’opera di corte di Vienna e afflusso di pubblico della stagione 1789/90 e cose cambiarono dal 1897 in poi, quando piaciuto a molti degli spettatori viennesi più collaboratore di Mozart per Le nozze di Figaro e i commenti e le recensioni furono favorevoli. una serie di importanti direttori d’orchestra sofisticati – prese in prestito o adattò di intere Don Giovanni. Il cast fu scelto dai suoi creatori. L’opera fu replicata altre quattro volte prima (e compositori) ritornarono alla partitura immagini ed espressioni, utilizzando a piene Adriana Ferraresi del Bene, all’epoca amante della morte dell’imperatore Giuseppe II, originale di Mozart e da Ponte. Richard Strauss mani anche brani dei suoi stessi libretti, Il finto del librettista (nella sua qualità di ecclesiastico discontinuo benefattore di Mozart, avvenuta diresse una versione preparata da Hermann cieco e Una cosa rara. Il terreno drammatico a cui era interdetto il matrimonio, da Ponte ne qualche settimana dopo. Fu una doppia Levi (il primo direttore del Parsifal di Wagner) era molto noto, e sfruttava il tema degli aveva molte), fu Fiordiligi. Da Ponte l’aveva sfortuna per il compositore: i teatri rimasero a Monaco; altrettanto fecero Gustav Mahler amanti che mettono alla prova la loro fedeltà definita la sua “disgrazia”, era stato molto chiusi per diverse settimane di lutto proprio nella patria originale dell’opera a Vienna, reciproca utilizzando travestimenti; gli esempi franco sulla mancanza di ovvie attrattive della mentre Così fan tutte si faceva conoscere, e sir Thomas Beecham a Londra e Fritz del passato si potevano far risalire alle leggende donna, ma gli piacevano i suoi occhi e la bocca. il nuovo imperatore, Leopoldo II, non era Busch, con un allestimento del 1934 di Carl di Zeus nella mitologia greca, alle Metamorfosi Il ruolo di Don Alfonso fu affidato il primo amante di Mozart, di da Ponte (che venne Ebert presso la sede da poco inaugurata del di Ovidio o alle più recenti opere teatrali di Dottor Bartolo/Antonio e Commendatore/ licenziato), dei cast da loro scelti (alcuni Glyndebourne Festival, che portò alla prima Shakespeare, come il Sogno di una notte di Masetto di Mozart, quello di Despina al primo dei quali vennero anche congedati) né della registrazione dell’opera. mezza estate e La Disputa di Marivaux (scritta Cherubino e quello di Guglielmo al primo cosiddetta opera buffa in generale. Date le Ma cosa c’era di tanto sconvolgente, nel 1744, e rappresentata con successo a Figaro. Avendo già composto in precedenza circostanze, l’allestimento di altre cinque immorale o triviale? La poesia di da Ponte Vienna). per gli altri cantanti del cast, Mozart conosceva rappresentazioni estive, di cui Mozart diresse sembrava una delle sue più “originali”, Fin qui, nulla di nuovo o sconcertante. bene tutte le voci con i loro punti di forza almeno l’ultima, fu un gran risultato. non essendo la diretta traduzione di una Eppure il compositore di corte Antonio (un’ampia aria brillante in due parti “Per pietà, In seguito, tuttavia, Così fan tutte finì per commedia contemporanea (come era Salieri – il primo a cui da Ponte aveva offerto il ben mio, perdona” per Fiordiligi) e i loro limiti essere una cenerentola tra le opere mature accaduto con Le nozze di Figaro) oppure suo libretto – abbandonò la composizione già (arie brevi per Alfonso). di Mozart. A Vienna fu rappresentata l’ampia rielaborazione del libretto di un altro al secondo terzetto degli uomini nell’Atto I, La prima della nuova opera, con un nuovamente solo nel 1794. Per gran parte contemporaneo (Don Giovanni) – entrambe dichiarando il testo “indegno dell’invenzione numero sorprendente di tagli probabilmente dell’Ottocento, commentatori e impresari, a normali ferri del mestiere per un librettista del musicale”. (Uno sguardo agli appunti rimasti apportati per snellire le prove, si svolse presso partire dal clamoroso esempio di Beethoven, XVIII secolo. Anzi, il libretto di Così fan tutte dimostra come gli fosse completamente

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 76-77 2/3/08 14:28:57 sfuggita l’ironia della vanagloriosa difesa delle due ufficiali ricordano la guerra che al tempo due sorelle Fiordiligi e Dorabella sono definite ladroncello”, descrive senz’altro l’eccitazione fidanzate da parte dei giovani ufficiali di fronte vedeva impegnata l’Austria contro le potenze “dame ferraresi”, con riferimento alla cantante che nasce dalla prima esperienza dell’amore ad Alfonso). E Salieri – che per Mozart non fu “orientali”, soprattutto la Turchia, sempre Adriana Ferraresi del Bene e a una diceria sessuale. poi quella nemesi che il teatro e il cinema del bersaglio del rozzo umorismo teatrale viennese popolare secondo cui le donne di Ferrara erano “Giuro che Figaro e Giovanni sono opere ventesimo secolo ha amato immaginare – era (come nel mozartiano Ratto dal Serraglio). di facili costumi. E il fatto che le protagoniste da dilettanti rispetto a Così fan tutte”, disse un compositore che collaborava regolarmente Anzi, la ripetuta reazione di Despina quando siano sorelle potrebbe essere un riferimento Reynaldo Hahn, esperto interprete mozartiano con da Ponte, il quale lo stimava anche più di vede per la prima volta gli innamorati travestiti alle sorelle Weber, entrambe corteggiate da e compositore francese. Insieme al contenuto Mozart per le sue vaste letture e il suo savoir- è tipica di certe opinioni popolari del tempo: Mozart, di cui una, Constanze, divenne sua verbale e psicologico del libretto di da Ponte, faire letterario. Proprio lui, più di tutti gli altri, “Che sembianze! che vestiti! Che figure! che moglie, mentre l’altra, Aloyisia, lo respinse? il tranquillo radicalismo dell’ambientazione avrebbe dovuto apprezzare i riferimenti classici mustacchi! Io non so se son valacchi, o se Al libretto offerto a Salieri furono apportate musicale di Mozart non avrebbe soddisfatto di da Ponte. turchi son costor”. Despina assume quasi il diverse modifiche quando il progetto passò a gli spiriti dei conservatori. Oltre a rispecchiare Eppure sembra che si fosse creata una ruolo di portavoce ambulante dell’uomo della Mozart, presumibilmente su suggerimento di il testo e le emozioni con dettagli strumentali situazione simile a quella che avrebbe spinto strada del suo tempo e delle notazioni sociali di quest’ultimo. dimostrativi che potrebbero definirsi gli onesti veneziani (e i censori) di metà Mozart e Da Ponte. E la sua idea della “cura” Infine venivano le immagini sessuali preromantici, Mozart assegnò uno spazio quasi ottocento a obbligare Verdi ad allestire contro il veleno, quando si traveste da dottore vere e proprie. Originariamente l’opera inaudito della storia ai concertati, un altro una prima rappresentazione con costumi e nell’Atto I, evoca il magnetismo di Franz era ambientata a Trieste, ma fu trasferita a passo verso la narrazione operistica naturalistica scenografie risalenti all’epoca di Luigi XIV Anton Mesmer il quale, nella vita, fu amico Napoli, sicuramente per la reputazione di senza parlato, di cui era stato pioniere nel finale per Traviata, dramma contemporaneo su e regolare corrispondente di Mozart e della lusso e decadenza peccaminosa legata a questa dell’Atto II di Figaro. una cortigiana parigina. Salieri e molti artisti, sua famiglia. Questo teatro parodistico – che città, con la presenza minacciosa del Vesuvio Oggi noi scopriamo una profondità promotori e spettatori successivi, rimasero preannuncia quasi il piacere con cui Mozart in eruzione (che si vede nella scenografia), psicologica avvincente in ciò che i nostri scandalizzati di fronte all’atteggiamento molto avrebbe lavorato alla sua opera “popolare”, evidente metafora dell’eccitazione sessuale, antenati consideravano immorale e definivano moderno di Così fan tutte per quanto riguarda Il flauto magico, – potrebbe aver confuso allora come oggi. E quando Fiordiligi, nel triviale. Ai nostri occhi, Così fan tutte può il sesso, i personaggi e le convenzioni teatrali ulteriormente coloro che da un compositore tentativo di sfuggire alle attenzioni di Ferrando assumere un significato più profondo e ammesse. Per cominciare, davano da pensare “classico” si attendevano un’opera buffa più (travestito), dice di aver visto “un aspide, universale rispetto alle Nozze di Figaro o gli ovvi riferimenti contemporanei. Nell’Atto misurata. un’idra, un basilisco” , probabilmente non al Don Giovanni perché non è legato a un I, Despina ha un’intera aria (“In uomini, in Poi venivano le allusioni interne. Il titolo descrive un quadro orientale di soggetto contesto politico/sociale specifico (come le soldati, sperare fedeltà?”) in cui mette alla stesso dell’opera è una citazione da un’opera mitologico. Né il sesso sembra fermarsi alle beghe tra aristocrazia e servitù delle altre berlina i militari, di cui era piena la Vienna precedente di Mozart/da Ponte – “così fan allusioni. La musica e le immagini, per esempio opere di da Ponte), ma a quello umano. Le del 1790. I travestimenti da “albanesi” dei tutte le belle”, dalle Nozze di Figaro – mentre le l’aria dell’Atto II di Dorabella, “È amore un coppie dell’opera non sono solo impegnate

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 78-79 2/3/08 14:28:57 in schermaglie sessuali, ma nell’intera le sue pupille oppure dalla consapevolezza sorella, sia possibile ristabilire lo status quo? pubblico: “Fortunato l’uom che prende ogni problematica dell’onestà nei confronti di se di essere stata tratta in inganno da tutti? La coppia più superficiale, rappresentata cosa per buon verso, e tra i casi e le vicende da stessi e degli altri. Si ha quasi un sentore di Tutte queste sono alternative interamente da Dorabella e Guglielmo, non si è messa a ragion guidar si fa”. psicanalisi a Vienna, un secolo prima di Freud. possibili e interpretabili, anche nell’ambito di nudo quanto quella più poetica e riflessiva © 2008 Mike Ashman Perché Alfonso spinge Ferrando e Guglielmo un’inquadratura strettamente letterale del testo di Fiordiligi e Ferrando (con le loro voci più alla loro scommessa? Quando esaltano le e della musica. acute)? Per il XVIII secolo e per Mozart e doti delle due fidanzate (che però sembrano Le idee della Rivoluzione francese, in da Ponte, questo non era un problema. La Un'osservazione del direttore conoscere appena), i due giovani ufficiali svolgimento parallelamente alla prima deroga alle regole si era verificata nell’ambito Nel 1890 si svolse un allestimento di Così fan sono sinceri o cercano di scoprire se è vero dell’opera, ebbe decise ripercussioni su Così fan delle classiche unità di tempo (un giorno, tutte con il titolo di School for Lovers, realizzato l’opposto? Il loro travestimento è volutamente tutte, per quanto siano meno evidenti rispetto dall’alba al tramonto) e di luogo (tranne per dagli studenti del Royal College of Music, eccessivo e poco convincente? a Figaro o Don Giovanni. Il risvolto negativo la scena iniziale nel caffè dove gli uomini fondato sette anni prima, presso il teatro Negli innumerevoli allestimenti di Così è rappresentato dal fatto che le riforme del concordano la scommessa), e si concludeva Savoy di Londra. La diresse sir Charles Villiers fan tutte, da quando l’opera è entrata nel Terzo stato non avrebbero mai raggiunto semplicemente alla fine della commedia. Ma Stanford, direttore del RCM, e per quella normale repertorio negli anni Cinquanta, le l’impero austriaco. I lavoratori rimasero Mozart e da Ponte, in linea con il loro nuovo rappresentazione, che segnava il centenario interpretazioni si sono incentrate in particolare lavoratori (anche dopo l’ingresso di Napoleone realismo che rivoluzionava e sfidava un secolo dell’opera, fu realizzata una nuova traduzione sulle precise motivazioni dei personaggi. a Vienna) e ogni Despina, per quanto arguta e di commentatori, non possono ammettere che in inglese. L’autore,�������������������������������� il reverendo Marmaduke Alfonso è un cinico maschilista senza cuore, intelligente, continuò a essere usata e sfruttata. la commedia finisca qui. Alfonso conclude: E. Browne,��������������������������������� era maestro di coro e organista. deciso a suscitare scompiglio per compensare D’altro canto, le donne di queste opere “V’ingannai, ma fu l’inganno, disinganno ai Per quanto la trama dell’opera potesse essere una pena d’amore propria, oppure, come portano avanti lo svolgimento della vicenda vostri amanti, che più saggi omai saranno, poco adatta per un uomo di chiesa, le rime di Prospero, è un maestro di vita per i giovani? più attivamente rispetto a molte opere buffe che faran quel ch’io vorrò... ���������������Abbracciatevi e Browne si rivelano estremamente argute, anche Despina è una donna cinica e prezzolata al e l’accusa di sessismo normalmente rivolta a tacete”. ���������������������������������Ferrando e Guglielmo accettano la se spesso si discostano molto dall’originale di servizio di Alfonso, un’insegnante realistica Così fan tutte viene confutata dalla maniera promessa delle ragazze “adorarti ognor saprò” Da Ponte. Prendiamo per esempio la prima per quanto brutalmente franca delle ragazze liberale con cui Fiordiligi e Dorabella finiscono ma con cautela: “Te lo credo. ���������������Gioia bella, ma esclamazione delle fanciulle che contemplano a proposito della sessualità, o una proletaria per accettare i loro nuovi amanti che, nel loro la prova io far non vo’”. ��������������������Despina si chiede se i ritratti dei loro innamorati. L’osservazione che rivoluziona (come Figaro e Leporello) gli travestimento da albanesi, rappresenterebbero stia sognando, si “confonde” e si “vergogna” e di Fiordiligi “Si vede un sembiante/guerriero assunti delle viziate classi medie e alte? Ed è una vera incognita per due raffinate dame. minaccia una sorta di vendetta: “Manco mal, ed amante” viene tradotta con un’allusione ad a conoscenza del fatto che gli “albanesi” sono Ma che dire della conclusione? È davvero se a me l’han fatta, che a molt’altri anch’io Adone, che facilita la rima inglese: in realtà Ferrando e Guglielmo, o rimane possibile che, dopo tanti travagli e un contatto la fo”. Solo allora gli attori abbandonano il “This portrait alone is scioccata dalla loro rivelazione finale quanto così diretto con il fidanzato della propria ruolo per offrire consigli illuminati e astratti al the face of Adonis.”

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 80-81 2/3/08 14:28:58 La replica di Dorabella, “Si vede una faccia/che di John Cox nel 1980, utilizzammo ancora la brani: un duetto degli uomini nell’Atto I, e alle fermate e aggiunto di tanto in tanto un alletta e minaccia”, diventa un’altra citazione versione di Browne con molte diverse revisioni una terza aria per Ferrando, “Ah lo veggio”, abbellimento alle linee vocali nelle arie. classica: di Cox, per lo più per riavvicinare il testo mantenendo due arie per personaggio, come Nel caso di quest’opera, siamo fortunati: “Ah, then it must follow inglese al significato di Da Ponte e i ritmi nella maggior parte delle opere comiche esiste ancora una versione con abbellimenti del that this is Apollo.” musicali all’originale di Mozart. In questa dell’epoca. Analogamente, come nella tardo Settecento conservata presso la biblioteca Oppure prendiamo la tirata di Guglielmo registrazione viene utilizzato il testo di Browne. tradizione, sono stati apportati piccoli tagli Fürstenberg di Donaueschingen. Molti contro le donne: mentre Da Ponte ripete più Per la verità l’allestimento studentesco del al duetto di Ferrando e Fiordiligi, al coro del abbellimenti e cadenze di questo spartito, volte “la fate a tanti e tanti”, Browne propone 1890 non fu il primo ad essere rappresentato finale dell’Atto II e a molti recitativi. Sebbene particolarmente nelle arie di Fiordiligi, sono ogni volta ingegnose variazioni: “Ladies have in inglese. Così fan tutte, eseguita per la prima le registrazioni contemporanee in genere stati utilizzati in questa registrazione. such variations, permutations, fluctuations”, volta a Londra nel 1811, fu rappresentata alla presentino l’opera in versione assolutamente © 2008 Sir Charles Mackerras “Alas their vacillations, complications”, “the Royal English Opera con il titolo Tit for Tat integrale, io ho scelto di registrare questa ladies’ retractions, abjurations”, “aberrations, or The Tables Turned! ����������������������( un po’ come “Pan per versione inglese di Così fan tutte con i tagli hesitations” etc. Sebbene realizzata circa un focaccia”, n.d.t.) nel 1828. Chissà com’era tradizionali, in modo che si avvicini di più a Argomento secolo dopo il testo di Da Ponte, la versione quella versione, riveduta e corretta, soprattutto un allestimento teatrale. di Browne sembra rievocare Pope o Sheridan. dal momento che il cartellone includeva Per quanto riguarda lo stile dell’esecuzione compact disc one Forse il verso più ingegnoso è il famoso anche un secondo brano, The Bottle Imp! (un nella registrazione, per la meravigliosa riepilogo di Don Alfonso: “Giacchè giovani, titolo ispirato, pare, a una popolare leggenda partitura di Mozart è stato un vero piacere 1 Ouverture vecchie e belle e brutte,/ripetete con me:/così “tedesca”, nonostante ricordi molto il genio avere il contributo dell’Orchestra of the Age Atto I fan tutte! della lampada)! of Enlightenment con la sua padronanza del Una bottega di caffè “Spite of wisdom, folly, plainness or beauty, Alla sua prima rappresentazione a Vienna colore tonale, del fraseggio e dell’impulso 2 – 4 Ferrando e Guglielmo, due giovani every woman’s the same, Così fan tutte.” nel 1790, Mozart accettò l’omissione di ritmico. Naturalmente i nostri cantanti ufficiali, si vantano con l’amico Don Alfonso (qui la parola “beauty” viene pronunciata con numerosi passaggi dalla partitura, per quale fanno grande uso dell’appoggiatura vocale, della fedeltà delle loro fidanzate, le sorelle una “e” finale per far rima con “tutte”) motivo non sappiamo, dal momento che eseguendo le prime due o tre sillabe di una Fiordiligi e Dorabella. 5 – 6 Don Alfonso si La traduzione di Browne continuò ad essere furono eliminati alcuni momenti veramente parola in note superiori o inferiori congiunte dice certo di poter dimostrare in un giorno che utilizzata al teatro di Sadler’s Wells fino negli sublimi, per esempio il quartetto a canone che si appoggiano alla nota reale. Questo ci le loro promesse spose sono, come tutte le altre, anni Sessanta, nonostante si fossero diffuse verso l’inizio del secondo finale. Negli aiuta a sottolineare il testo ed esaltarlo. infedeli per natura, e scommette cento zecchini. nuove versioni di numerose opere famose allestimenti contemporanei non si apportano Gli interpreti di Così fan tutte all’epoca I giovani accettano la scommessa e promettono, redatte da E.J. Dent. Quando io diressi Così al normalmente tagli tanto drastici ma, in di Mozart furono tutti nomi prestigiosi e sul proprio onore di soldati, di obbedire in tutto London Coliseum nel delizioso allestimento linea con la tradizione, sono stati omessi due avrebbero automaticamente cantato cadenze a Don Alfonso senza dirlo alle innamorate.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 82-83 2/3/08 14:28:58 Un giardino sulla spiaggia accetta di farsi pagare per presentare due Atto II il baldanzoso Guglielmo sente parlare della 7 – 8 Fiordiligi e Dorabella sospirano davanti nuovi pretendenti alle fanciulle. 26 Arrivano Una camera nella casa delle sorelle fedeltà di Fiordiligi, poi mostra a Ferrando il ai ritratti dei loro uomini, anche se Fiordiligi Guglielmo e Ferrando travestiti (Despina 4 Tormentate e infine persuase da Despina ritratto di Dorabella. Don Alfonso propone un confessa “volentieri farei la pazzerella”. 9 – 11 si chiede se siano “Turchi” o “Valacchi”) e ( 5 – 6 “Una donna a quindici anni”), le secondo assalto alla fedeltà di Fiordiligi. Entra Don Alfonso, fingendosi addolorato, e dichiarano la propria passione a Fiordiligi e sorelle decidono che non c’è nulla di cui comunica che gli uomini sono stati convocati Dorabella. 27 – 30 Per aiutarli, Don Alfonso vergognarsi: “per divertirsi un poco e non Una stanza nella casa delle sorelle dal re per la guerra (“al marzial campo ordin finge che si tratti di due suoi vecchi amici, morire dalla malinconia non si manca di fé”. 5 Despina si congratula con Dorabella “vedo regio li chiama”) e devono partire seduta stante. ma le sorelle resistono a tutte le lusinghe, 7 – 8 Dorabella, fidanzata di Ferrando, decide che siete una donna di garbo; 6 ogni resistenza 12 – 13 Concede il tempo per un breve addio, soprattutto Fiordiligi che si erge “come scoglio di flirtare con “il brunettino” (Guglielmo) e è stata vana, ammette Dorabella. 7 Fiordiligi ridendo dell’angoscia delle fanciulle, ma avverte immoto”. 31 – 33 Insieme con Don Alfonso Fiordiligi con “il biondino” (Ferrando). le maledice entrambe, insieme a Don Alfonso gli uomini che il gioco è appena iniziato. 14 – 17 gli uomini ridono della loro apparente vittoria e al mondo intero e poi ordina a Despina di Arrivano alcuni soldati e portano via Ferrando (“Un’aura amorosa del nostro tesoro”). Nel giardino sulla riva del mare portare le spade e i vestiti dei fidanzati, per e Guglielmo in barca; 18 – 19 le fanciulle e Don 9 – 11 I nuovi corteggiatori hanno organizzato andare, travestita, con Dorabella, fino al campo Alfonso augurano a entrambi buon viaggio compact disc TWO una serenata all’aperto per le sorelle. Al termine, di battaglia dove si trovano i fidanzati. 8 Ma (“Soave sia il vento”). Despina e Don Alfonso lasciano sole le due Ferrando, spinto da Guglielmo e Don Alfonso, Un bel giardino con due banchi d’erba coppie. 12 Guglielmo flirta con Dorabella, le fa un altro tentativo, questa volta con successo, Una stanza elegante nella casa delle sorelle 1 – 2 Gli “Albanesi” adesso fingono di offre un ciondolo e inorridisce quando lei lo di conquistare Fiordiligi. “Crudel, hai vinto, fa’ 20 – 21 Despina, la cameriera delle sorelle, avvelenarsi con l’arsenico per disperazione; accetta. Quindi riesce a toglierle il ritratto di di me quel che ti par”, dichiara la sua vittima. si lamenta della sua “vita maledetta” al loro Don Alfonso e Despina esortano le fanciulle a Ferrando. 13 Fortemente attratti l’uno all’altra, servizio. 22 – 24 Quando Dorabella dice “viva dimostrare “pietade” agli uomini morenti – ed i due finiscono per accettare “nuovi diletti” 9 – 11 Don Alfonso incoraggia i due sconfitti, a seppellirmi andrei”, Despina consiglia alle escono in cerca di un “dottore”. Non appena le e il “dolce penar”. 14 – 16 Nonostante provi mentre sono ancora sotto giuramento, di padrone addolorate di divertirsi mentre gli sorelle ammettono di sentirsi mosse a pietà, 3 un’attrazione analoga per Ferrando, Fiordiligi “sposare” le nuove fidanzate, ripetendo il suo innamorati sono lontano, prendendosi gioco arriva il medico (si tratta di Despina travestita, gli resiste – temporaneamente – e invoca ammonimento: “Così fan tutte”. della loro ingenuità (“in uomini, in soldati, riconosciuta dagli uomini, ma non dalle donne), l’assente Guglielmo di perdonare i suoi desideri sperare fedeltà?”). Le donne rimangono che si vanta di conoscere molte lingue e propone reconditi (“Per pietà, ben mio, perdona”). Una sala brillantemente illuminata scandalizzate. una cura con una “pietra mesmerica”. Il magnete 12 – 13 Le nozze delle sorelle con i loro nuovi e molti contatti fisici con le ragazze, riescono a compact disc THREE innamorati vengono riccamente celebrate. 25 Despina non è contenta di ritrovare guarire gli Albanesi, ma Fiordiligi e Dorabella 14 Arriva un notaio (Despina sotto un altro una vecchia conoscenza, Don Alfonso, ma non sono ancora pronte a cedere. 1 – 4 Gli uomini si scambiano le impressioni: travestimento) per svolgere la cerimonia

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 84-85 2/3/08 14:28:59 ufficiale e congiungere, in latino maccheronico, Janice Watson (Fiordiligi) ha studiato presso Le apparizioni in concerto comprendono la Welsh National Opera, Albert Herring, le due donne con gli Albanesi Leander e la Guildhall School of Music and Drama e si collaborazioni con direttori del calibre di sir Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) e Andromaca Philander. Le ragazze firmano, ma un rullo è messa in luce per la prima volta vincendo il Roger Norrington, André Previn, Michael nell’Ermione di Rossini a Glyndebourne, di tamburi e le voci dei soldati interrompono premio dedicato alla memopria di Kathleen Tilson-Thomas, sir Colin Davis, Riccardo Isolier (Le Comte Ory) a Losanna, Roma i procedimenti: Ferrando e Guglielmo sono Ferrier. Chailly, Frans Brüggen, sir Neville Marriner e e Glyndebourne, Proserpina nell’Orfeo di tornati dalla guerra. Gli “Albanesi” e il notaio I suoi ruoli teatrali hanno compreso Pamina Bernard Haitink. Monteverdi ad Amsterdam, Ariadne auf Naxos si nascondono, 15 poi entrano Ferrando e (Die Zauberflöte) con l’Opéra di Parigi; Vitellia Per Chandos Janice Watson ha registrato a Lisbona, Marguerite (La Damnation de Guglielmo in divisa. Rimangono sorpresi (La clemenza di Tito) per la Flanders Opera, il ruolo di protagonista in Jenu˚fa (per la serie Faust) a Vienna e Ginevra, Minerva (Il ritorno dalle reazioni delle donne, dal loro pallore Daphne, Arabella, Salome di Strauss ed Elettra Opera in English), il Gloria di Poulenc, la d’Ulisse in patria) ad Amsterdam e a Sydney; e dal loro silenzio, finché non scoprono il di Mozart (Idomeneo) al Festival di Santa Fe, Missa Sabrinensis di Howells e Ellen Orford Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg alla Royal notaio (Despina si rivela immediatamente) Daphne, Arabella ed Eva (Die Meistersinger nella registrazione di Peter Grimes premiata con Opera House Covent Garden, Junon in Platée e il contratto di matrimonio e gridano al von Nürnberg) con l’Opera di San Francisco un Grammy. di Rameau con la Royal Opera al Festival tradimento, minacciando di far scorrere Opera, Pamina, la contessa Almaviva (Le nozze di Edimburgo e a Londra e Octavian (Der sangue a fiumi. Si precipitano fuori e ritornano di Figaro) e Arabella alla Bayerische Staatsoper Diana Montague (Dorabella) è nata a Rosenkavalier) alla English National Opera, a travestiti solo per metà per rivelare l’inganno di Monaco, Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes) Winchester e ha studiato presso il Royal Bilbao e al Teatro Real di Madrid; e per burlarsi delle donne e di Despina. La all’Opera di Vienna, Netherlands Opera e Northern College of Music. Dopo il La nutrita discografia di Diana Montagne cameriera è sorpresa e inorridita quanto le Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Gloriana suo esordio nelle vesti di Zerlina con la comprende Orfeo di Monteverdi, I Capuleti e sorelle. Don Alfonso scusa le proprie azioni di Britten all’Aldeburgh Festival, la contessa Glyndebourne Touring Opera, è comparsa i Montecchi, Norma, Iphigénie en Tauride; per sostenendo che il suo inganno è servito Almaviva e Salome alla Deutsche Staatsoper di alla Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, alla Opera Rara Rosmonda d’Inghilterra, Zoraida a rendere tutti più saggi e auspica una Berlino; Micaëla (Carmen) alla Lyric Opera di Metropolitan Opera di New York, al Théâtre di Granata e Il crociato in Egitto; per la serie riconciliazione generale. Le ragazze si pentono Chicago e alla Metropolitan Opera, la contessa de la Monnaie di Bruxelles, all’Opéra National Opera in English di Chandos, Cherubino e promettono fedeltà (“Colla fede e coll’amore Almaviva e Liù alla Metropolitan Opera. È de Paris-Bastille, al Teatro Colón di Buenos (The Marriage of Figaro), Idamante (Idomeneo), compensar saprò il tuo cuore”), mentre gli ospite regolare della English National Opera Aires e ai festival di Bayreuth e Salisburgo. Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Octavian in uomini sono più esitanti (“la prova far non (ultimamente nelle vesti della Marschallin Il suo repertorio include i principali ruoli Der Rosenkavalier (momenti salienti), Sandman vo’”). 16 Tutti elogiano “l’uom che prende ogni in Der Rosenkavalier e di Madam Butterfly) per mezzosoprano delle opere di Mozart, (Hansel and Gretel ), Faust, e due dischi solistici cosa per buon verso… bella calma troverà” . e della Welsh National Opera (ultimamente Gluck, Strauss, Rossini, Bellini e Berlioz, e della serie Great Operatic Arias. nell’Ariadne di Strauss). Ha cantato Katá i suoi impegni hanno compreso Benvenuto © 2008 Mike Ashman Kabánova per la Royal Opera e per il suo Cellini con il Teatro lirico di Roma, Iphigénie Vincitore del premio lieder al concorso Cardiff Traduzione: Emanuela Guastella esordio scaligero a Milano. en Tauride a Buenos Aires, Madrid e con Singer of the World del 1997, Christopher

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 86-87 2/3/08 14:29:00 Maltman (Guglielmo) ha studiato biochimica Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas) a Vienna; Tarquinius David (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) con Lesley Garrett, CBE (Despina), è il più noto presso la Warwick University e canto alla Royal per l’Aldeburgh Festival e per English National Antonio Pappano. È comparso con l’Opera soprano britannico e compare regolarmente in Academy of Music. Opera, Laurent (Therese Raquin) all’opera di di San Francisco (Alcina), il Festival di Aix- allestimenti teatrali, in concerto, in televisione Ha esordito di recente alla Metropolitan San Diego, e Guglielmo per English National en-Provence (Hyllas in Hercules di Handel), e nelle registrazioni. Molto apprezzata dalla Opera, New York nel ruolo di Harlekin Opera e a Seattle. l’Opera di Amburgo (Ferrando), il Teatro critica e da numerosi fan e appassionati di (Ariadne auf Naxos). Alla Royal Opera House, In concerto ha collaborato con direttori Real di Madrid (Tamino), il Grand Théâtre musica. La sua discografia riunisce dodici Covent Garden, ha creato il ruolo di Sebastian del calibro di Christoph von Dohnányi, John du Genève (David) e ha cantato allo Châtelet CD solistici. Soprano in Red ha ricevuto un nella prima mondiale di The Tempest di Thomas Adams, sir Roger Norrington, sir Simon Rattle, con sir Simon Rattle nell’allestimento di premio Gramophone per la categoria “Best- Adès e ha inoltre cantato Guglielmo (Così fan Nikolaus Harnoncourt, sir John Eliot Gardiner, Fidelio del Glyndebourne. Ha interpretato selling Classical Artist of the Year”. Nella tutte), Ramiro (L’Heure espagnole), Malatesta Esa-Pekka Salonen e Kurt Masur. Ha al suo il ruolo della folle (Madwoman) in Curlew sua serie televisiva The Lesley Garrett Show, (Don Pasquale), Nardo (La finta giardiniera) attivo numerosi recital nel Regno Unito e River di Britten al Festival di Edimburgo e il soprano ha accolto ospiti come Marcello e Papageno (Die Zauberflöte). I suoi ruoli per all’estero. La discografia comprende brani di ha esordito a Santa Fe nei ruoli di Tamino Alvarez, Ian Bostridge, Alison Moyet, Michael il Glyndebourne Festival comprendono Ned Warlock, Holst, Somervell, Straus, Schubert e i e Ferdinand (The Tempest di Ades). Ha al Ball, Maxim Vengerov e Joshua Bell, Renée Keene (Peter Grimes), Sid (Albert Herring), Dichterliebe e Liederkreis di Schumann. suo attivo una stretta collaborazione con la Fleming, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Dmitri Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Achilla (Giulio English National Opera (La Belle Helene), Hvorostovsky, Marti Pellow, Michel Legrand Cesare) e l’esordio nelle vesti di Papageno. Laureato presso il New College di Oxford dove e la Royal Opera, Covent Garden nella ed Elaine Paige. È stata protagonista di un (Presso la Bayerische Staatsoper di Monaco ha conseguito anche una borsa di studio corale, Cenerentola. servizio della serie The South Bank Show e i ha cantato Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia), Toby Spence (Ferrando) ha studiato presso la Toby Spence ha collaborato con la London suoi varietà musicali sono proseguiti alla BBC Guglielmo, Marcello (La Bohème) e Albert Opera School della Guildhall School of Music Symphony Orchestra, il Monteverdi Choir con The Singer. (Werther). Apprezzato per l’interpretazione and Drama. and Orchestra, l’Orchestra di Cleveland, la La carriera operistica di Lesley Garrett ha di Billy Budd, ha cantato questo ruolo presso Per il suo esordio in teatro ha indossato i Filarmonica di Berlino e l’Orchestra Sinfonica compreso primi ingaggi presso il Wexford la Welsh National Opera, il Teatro Regio di panni di Idamante (Idomeneo) per la Welsh di San Francisco e con prestigiosi direttori Festival, Welsh National Opera, Opera North e Torino, a Seattle e a Monaco. Altre apparizioni National Opera, e ha riproposto questo ruolo d’orchestra tra cui sir Simon Rattle, John Glyndebourne Festival Opera prima di entrare teatrali comprendono Don Giovanni presso alla Scottish Opera e all’Opera nazionale Eliot Gardiner, Michael Tilson-Thomas, alla English National Opera in 1984. Durante The Sage, Gateshead in un nuovo allestimento della Baviera. A Monaco ha cantato Ferrando, Valéry Gergiev e Antonio Pappano. La sua il periodo di collaborazione con la English diretto da sir Thomas Allen, il conte Almaviva Ottavio, Telemaco (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in attività concertistica comprende apparizioni al National Opera la cantante è stata interprete (Le nozze di Figaro) a Vienna; Papageno a San patria) e Aci (Aci e Galatea). Per il teatro Festival di Edimburgo e a Londra, a St Luke di molti allestimenti, conquistandosi Francisco; Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia) alla La Monnaie di Bruxelles ha cantato Tamino con la London Simphony Orchestra e presso il l’apprezzamento della critica per i suoi ruoli Deutsche Staatsoper di Berlino e a San Diego; (Die Zauberflöte) con David Robertson e Wigmore Hall. comici e seri. Ha esordito alla Royal Opera

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 88-89 2/3/08 14:29:01 nell’allestimento della Vedova allegra del 1997. È stato apprezzato in modo particolare per di allestimenti di successo del Don Giovanni della loro sicurezza e il miglioramento dei loro Ultimamente ha fatto ritorno al Coliseum Billy Budd, Pelléas, Eugenio Onieghin, Ulisse e e Così fan tutte presso The Sage a Gateshead. livelli, le esecuzioni subirono un cambiamento per riproporre la sua apprezzata Rosina in Beckmesser, oltre che i grandi ruoli mozartiani: Nel 1989 Thomas Allen è stato nominato radicale The Barber of Se ville di Rossini. Ha il conte Almaviva, Don Alfonso, Papageno, Commander of the British Empire e nel 1999 Nel 1986 un gruppo di musicisti fondava interpretato The Fox nella nuova opera di Guglielmo e, naturalmente, ha ricevuto l’onorificenza di Knight Bachelor. un complesso autonomo di strumenti d’epoca: Rachel Portman intitolata The Little Prince, Don Giovanni. I suoi recenti impegni hanno l’Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. trasmessa dal secondo canale BBC nel 2004 compreso Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), La carriera di cantante di Geoffrey Mitchell Il nome è legato soprattutto al periodo del Lesley Garrett si è esibita in tutta Europa, Don Alfonso, Ulisse e Don Giovanni per la racchiude un repertorio notevole che spazia repertorio musicale, per quanto oggi i confini negli USA, in Australia, Russia, Brasile, Bayerische Staatsoper; Prosdocimo dalla musica antica a quella contemporanea si siano notevolmente ampliati, oltre che al Giappone, Malaysia, Taiwan e Corea del Sud. (Il turco in Italia) e il ruolo di protagonista e che l’ha portato in Scandinavia, Germania, principio della scoperta. L’organico non ha È stata insignita di un CBE nel 2002 per il suo in Sweeney Todd alla Royal Opera House, nella ex Cecoslovacchia, in Canada e mai avuto un solo direttore d’orchestra, ma contributo alla musica. Eisenstein al Glyndebourne Festival, Don Australasia. L’esperienza di direzione degli inizi diversi direttori o (spesso) primi violini o Alfonso alla Lyric Opera di Chicago, il festival con la BBC lo ha condotto ad un maggiore tastieristi, nominati ad hoc, in base ai concerti, Nato a Seaham, nella Contea di Durham, di Salisburgo (primavera ed estate), Forester coinvolgimento con i suoi stessi cantanti e oppure anche persone che diversamente non sir Thomas Allen (Alfonso) ha debuttato (La volpe astuta) alla San Francisco Opera; inoltre alla creazione del Geoffrey Mitchell avrebbero mai fronteggiato un’orchestra di con la Welsh National Opera, riscuotendo Beckmesser e Don Alfonso alla Metropolitan Choir. Le prime registrazioni sono sfociate strumenti d’epoca. L’Orchestra of the Age of enorme successo nei grandi teatri lirici del Opera di New York. Alla Royal Opera House nel coinvolgimento a lungo termine del Coro Enlightenment si è ben presto fatta notare mondo. Presso la Royal Opera House, Covent ha cantato il padre (Hansel and Gretel ), Faninal con Opera Rara, per la quale ha inciso più di per la sua originalità, con interpretazioni Garden, dove nel 2006 ha festeggiato il (Der Rosenkavalier) e Gianni Schicchi. trenta registrazioni. Il Coro gode di una fama alimentate dall’energia di tutti i componenti, trentacinquesimo anniversario del debutto Molto apprezzato anche nelle sale da sempre maggiore con ulteriore lavoro dalla non da un rappresentante particolarmente con la compagnia, ha interpretato più di concerto, l’artista compare in recital nel BBC e da case discografiche internazionali. ispiratore. quaranta ruoli. Nel 2006 ha festeggiato anche Regno Unito, in Europa, Australia e America Per la Chandos il Geoffrey Mitchell Choir A distanza di ventun anni, il successo il venticinquesimo anniversario del debutto alla e ha collaborato con gli organici e i direttori ha partecipato a numerose registrazioni nelle continua. Oltre alla sua attività concertistica, Metropolitan Opera di New York. Apprezzato d’orchestra più importanti. applaudite serie di Opera in English con il l’organico compare regolarmente come artista della Lyric Opera di Chicago, San Il primo libro di Thomas Allen, Foreign patrocinio della Peter Moores Foundation. Associate Orchestra a Glyndebourne. Inoltre Francisco Opera e , Parts – A Singer’s Journal è stato pubblicato ha una residenza presso il Southbank Centre Bayerische Staatsoper di Monaco e La Scala di nel 1993; il 2003 ha visto un trionfante Nel 1976 alcuni interpreti di strumenti di Londra e una nell’Inghilterra di sud ovest. Milano, ha collaborato anche con i Festival di debutto nella regia con Albert Herring presso barocchi, basati a Londra, collaboravano con In occasione del suo ventunesimo anniversario, Salisburgo e Glyndebourne. il Royal College of Music, seguito dalla regia organici diretti da esperti. Con l’aumentare l’Orchestra ha assegnato a sei personaggi

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 90-91 2/3/08 14:29:01 che hanno svolto ruoli fondamentali nella repertorio più tradizionale alla sua nomina Gilbert e Sullivan oltre a una serie completa Sir Charles Mackerras ha ricevuto diverse sua storia la carica di Principal Artist (Iván a Direttore musicale della English National delle sinfonie di Mozart, Beethoven e Brahms, onorificenze, tra cui il CBE nel 1974, seguito Fischer, Vladimir Jurowski e sir Simon Opera (1970 – 77) e in seguito della Welsh numerosi oratori di Handel e sinfonie di dalla nomina a baronetto nel 1979, la Rattle) ed Emeritus Conductor (Frans National Opera (1987 – 1992). È stato un Mahler ed Elgar. Attualmente è Principal Guest Medaglia di Merito della Repubblica Ceca nel Brüggen, sir Charles Mackerras e sir Roger pioniere della diffusione della musica di Conductor della Philharmonia Orchestra, 1996 e il titolo di Companion of the Order of Norrington). Due violiniste, Alison Bury Janácˇek nelle capitali europee, negli USA e Conductor Laureate della Scottish Chamber Australia nel 1997. Nel 2003 all’elenco delle e Margaret Faultless, condividono il ruolo in Australia. Una delle sue opere predilette Orchestra e Conductor Emeritus della Welsh onorificenze reali britanniche si è aggiunto il di primo violino. L’Orchestra of the Age of è Jenu˚fa. National Opera e della San Francisco Opera. Companion of Honour. Enlightenment rimane un organico di spicco e Sir Charles Mackerras ha al suo attivo una continua a entusiasmare il pubblico con le sue lunga collaborazione con la Filarmonica ceca, interpretazioni dinamiche, raffinate, originali e con cui ha registrato la maggior parte delle straordinarie. opere orchestrali di Janácˇek oltre a Katá Kabánova e Rusalka di Dvorˇák. La sua Sir Charles Mackerras ha studiato presso il vasta discografia comprende un premiato Conservatorio di Sydney e si è trasferito in ciclo di opere di Janácˇek con i Wiener Inghilterra nel 1947. Ha ottenuto una borsa di Philharmoniker all’inizio degli anni Ottanta. studio del British Council per proseguire gli Le registrazioni per Chandos comprendono studi presso l’Accademia Musicale di Praga. la versione originale della Messa glagolitica di Nel 1947 nasceva il suo appassionato interesse Janácˇek, Psalmus Hungaricus di Kodály e il per Janácˇek, dopo aver ascoltato la Katá Concerto per violoncello di Dvorˇák. Per la Kabánova diretta dal grande Václav Talich. serie Opera in English ha registrato Osud, In qualità di vicedirettore d’orchestra a La traviata, Werther, Julius Caesar, Mary Stuart, Sadler’s Wells nel 1951 Mackerras proponeva Eugene Onegin, Jenu˚fa, The Magic Flute, la prima esecuzione di Katá Kabánova The Bartered Bride ,The Makropulos Case e nel mondo anglofono. Il seguito avrebbe Hansel and Gretel. presentato L’affare Makropoulos e Da una Sir Charles Mackerras ha svolto inoltre casa di morti a Sadler’s Wells; avrebbe poi ricerche approfondite sulla musica del XVIII continuato a dirigere le opere di Janácˇek in secolo, soprattutto quella di Handel and allestimenti di grande successo, oltre a un Mozart. Ha registrato opere di Mozart e

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 92-93 2/3/08 14:29:01 On session: Christopher Maltman, Sir Thomas Allen and Toby Spence

CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 94-95 2/3/08 14:29:03 compact disc one Don Alfonso Don Alfonso Don Alfonso I don’t understand you. Credulity of youth, how you amuse me! Neither this one, neither that one: 1 Overture Women true? They never were. Ferrando and Guglielmo (putting their hands on Ferrando Act I their swords) You cynical old rogue, I swear by heaven!… Recitative Scene One Say on, we demand you, Don Alfonso Ferrando A coffee shop. Ferrando, Don Alfonso and Or else we will brand you 5 And I swear by experience, A poetical fiction! Guglielmo A coward and base. For this time I’m not joking. No 1, Trio Are your two ladies goddesses, Guglielmo Don Alfonso (aside) Eternal sneer of cynics! Ferrando O foolish devotion! Or are they women, no more, no less? 2 Suspect Dorabella? ’Twill end but in sadness Ferrando and Guglielmo The thought is absurd! Don Alfonso To seek to discover They’re women; No power could compel her So be it, but listen. The thorn on a rose. But… perfection… perfection… To forfeit her word. Don’t take offence so readily, What proof have you yet found that these dear Ferrando and Guglielmo (aside) Don Alfonso Guglielmo Whoe’er hath the courage creatures The truly perfect woman Have such peculiar natures; Suspect Fiordiligi, Her truth to disparage, You believe to be true? She’s honest as day, Will find in her lover That to you they are bound by a link that no Beautiful faith of youth, friction The one who adores her The direst of foes. Age bows to you. She ne’er would betray. Can sever? Recitative No. 2, Trio Don Alfonso 3 Swords or pistols? For (jokingly) Ferrando My temples are greying, Both of us demand satisfaction. 4 Woman’s faith is like the phoenix Personal experience… I speak from experience. In remote Arabia dwelling. But argue no longer, Don Alfonso (calmly) Travellers of such tales are telling; Guglielmo I’ve finished my say. I’m a peace-loving person Have they seen it? No, no, not they. Fine education… And I handle no steel except at table. Ferrando and Guglielmo Ferrando (eagerly) Ferrando No! No! You have spoken Ferrando Such a one is Dorabella! Of kindred feeling… Of vows to be broken, You’ll have to fight, or declare at once Produce us some token The reason for your vile insinuation. Guglielmo (eagerly) Guglielmo That such is the case. Your suspicion is treason! Such a one is Fiordiligi! No thought of self at all…

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 96-97 2/3/08 14:29:03 Ferrando Ferrando Guglielmo Guglielmo Nothing concealing… Absurd! On the word of a soldier. I’ve a better gift to offer Than your music and your . Guglielmo Don Alfonso Don Alfonso I shall give a lavish party Sympathetic and affable! A bet? Until tomorrow morning And we’ll revel loud and long. You will do as I say. Ferrando Ferrando Ferrando Don Alfonso We’ll bet you! Engagement… Try us! And shall I get an invitation?

Guglielmo Don Alfonso Guglielmo Ferrando and Guglielmo Betrothal… A hundred guineas. Try anything. Yes, of course sir, that you may For you’ll have the bill to pay. Guglielmo Don Alfonso Ferrando A thousand if you’d rather. Bravissimi! Protestations… Ferrando, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso Ferrando and Guglielmo And with love and wine united, Don Alfonso Swift shall pass the hours away. Don Alfonso You’ll take it? Bravissimo, Blushes, and sighs, embraces, palpitations, Signor Don Alfonsetto! Forgive me if I laugh at you. Ferrando (They depart.) Ferrando Here’s my hand on it. And when we’ve won it, Ferrando Scene Two See if you find that funny. Confound it! Don Alfonso A garden by the seashore. Fiordiligi and Dorabella. What have we said that’s laughable? Remember, no whispers, no winking Guglielmo (to Ferrando) The two girls are each looking at a miniature To your Penelopes that we are thinking Have you thought of a way to spend the money? hanging at their waists. Don Alfonso Of having sport by making fun of them. Excuse me! No. 3, Trio No 4, Duet What if I give you proof you Ferrando Ferrando Fiordiligi Cannot deny, they’re just like other women? We swear it– 6 I shall hire a band of players 7 This portrait alone is And a serenade I’ll bring her. The face of Adonis Guglielmo Don Alfonso Drums and trumpets But nought to the image Folly to try! On the word of a soldier. Shall accompany the singer. Enshrined in my heart.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 98-99 2/3/08 14:29:04 Dorabella I awoke today humming Fiordiligi Don Alfonso Ah, then it must follow, A tune that will not leave me, it does not falter, You’re welcome, My dear young ladies, That this is Apollo! I believe it’s to do with Hymen’s altar. Signor Don Alfonso. You will need all your courage. But tenfold more lovely In nature than art! Fiordiligi Don Alfonso Dorabella Give me your hand then, and let me tell your Dearest ladies. Oh Heaven! Fiordiligi fortune: What dreadful thing has come to pass. No aspect is wanting; Oh, what a life‑line, look where Dorabella What can have happened? A warrior and a lover! It goes, it must mean you’ll soon be married. What’s this? Where are the others? You are sighing. Can my lover be injured? Your news? For goodness sake, quick let us hear it! Dorabella Ferrando! Dorabella Fiordiligi You see here a feature D’you think I would resist it? Can mine be dying? So gentle and relentless. Fiordiligi Guglielmo. Fiordiligi and Dorabella Fiordiligi Don Alfonso So happy I’m feeling! I wouldn’t be against it. Don Alfonso Dead… they are not; with death the worst is over. If others delight me How will you bear it? Let Cupid requite me:– Dorabella Dorabella May Fortune implant in my bosom But it seems that the men of whom we’re No 5, Aria The smallpox? The pain of his dart. thinking 10 Let me try. My courage fails I’ll bear in my bosom the pain of his dart. Don’t mean to call today. Half past eleven. To deliver the dreadful news; Don Alfonso At the task my spirit quails, No. Recitative Fiordiligi Words forsake me, lips refuse. Fiordiligi 9 What to counsel? What to do? Here they are. Fiordiligi 8 I can’t think what’s the matter – How to meet the cruel blow! Or the gangrene? I’ve a silly desire for an adventure, a little mischief. As I weep for them, for you, There’s something in my veins that makes me tingle. Scene Three What to say I do not know. When Guglielmo gets here, just to tease him, Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso Don Alfonso I’ll ask him what it means. Recitative Not yet. Dorabella Fiordiligi Dorabella You’re mistaken, it’s Don Alfonso, 11 Tell us, for pity’s sake, Signor Alfonso, Fiordiligi Would you believe it? Their charming friend. Do not torture us so. Do tell us plainly.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 100-101 2/3/08 14:29:04 Don Alfonso Don Alfonso Fiordiligi Ferrando For active service To love you, and leave you. Love can conquer fate, believe me! That signal! They are both under orders. The sound will drive me distracted. Scene Four Dorabella Can I leave you, those tender arms denying! Fiordiligi and Dorabella Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Don Alfonso; Ferrando and I will die, my life disdaining. Oh God! How awful! Guglielmo in travelling clothes Don Alfonso Fiordiligi The boat is approaching! Fiordiligi No 6, Quintet You are mine while life’s remaining. When must they leave? Guglielmo Fiordiligi 12 Courage fails me! For no evasion Ferrando (aside to Don Alfonso) I’m fainting! Don Alfonso Can the dreadful truth dissemble. There you see now! This morning. Dorabella Ferrando Guglielmo (aside to Don Alfonso) I’m dying! In my anguish, how I tremble, Dorabella As we told you! As I tell you we must part. Scene Five And is there Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Nothing can exempt them? Don Alfonso (aside to the two men) Don Alfonso Guglielmo, soldiers and people. A military march To your bargain still I hold you! In the face of such calamity in the distance. A boat arrives at the shore; then a Don Alfonso Then the hero’s courage rises! troop of soldiers enters, accompanied by a crowd of Oh, no! Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo townspeople. Fiordiligi and Dorabella and Don Alfonso Fiordiligi Spare us other dread surprises! Ah! While fate is thus designing, No 8, Chorus Shall we not see them? If the worst be yet unspoken, Ever pain with joy combining, Chorus (soldiers and people) Ere the awful news be broken, Human pleasure undermining, 14 Oh, the soldier’s life for me! Don Alfonso Plunge a dagger in my heart. Nought to life can bliss impart. Ever o’er new countries ranging, In their sorrow they had not Daily scene and fortune changing, The courage to demand it. Ferrando and Guglielmo Recitative Now on land, and now on sea. But if it would not grieve you, My beloved, it’s fate ordaining, Don Alfonso (aside) Overhead the trumpet sounding, They’re waiting. Cruel fate, that cries ‘depart’. 13 It’s a comedy, charming! So true to nature, In his heart high courage bounding, And capitally acted. Comrades brave and faithful surrounding, Dorabella Dorabella That the soldier’s life should be. Are they here? Ah, no, no, you shall not leave me. (A drum sounds in the distance.) Oh, the soldier’s life for me!

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 102-103 2/3/08 14:29:05 Recitative No 9, Quintet Fiordiligi and Dorabella, Ferrando and Guglielmo Don Alfonso Don Alfonso Fiordiligi (weeping) What torture racks my heart, no words can tell. They have left us. 15 My friends, the time is flying, linger no longer: 16 You’ll write long letters often, Farewell, love, farewell! There’s no denying, duty than love is stronger. The cruel blow to soften. Fiordiligi Ah, why has fortune Don Alfonso (aside) Fiordiligi Dorabella (weeping) I’ll crease myself with laughter. So untimely bereft us? My life! No less than two a day, My dearest, you promise. Don Alfonso Dorabella Chorus Be courageous, Oh, my only angel! Ferrando Oh, the soldier’s life for me! Call hope to your assistance. A sweet task you set me! Ever o’er new countries ranging, (A kerchief is seen waving in the distance.) Ferrando Daily scene and fortune changing, For see there in the distance My love! Guglielmo Now on land, and now on sea. They are waving their handkerchiefs and Oh, yes, doubt not my complying. Overhead the trumpet sounding, weeping. Guglielmo In his heart high courage bounding, My darling! Don Alfonso (aside) Comrades brave and faithful surrounding, Fiordiligi (waving) Ill crease myself with laughter. That the soldier’s life should be. God bless you, my darling! Fiordiligi Oh, the soldier’s life for me! Give me one look to treasure. Fiordiligi Dorabella (waving) Think of me night and day! (While the chorus is repeated, Ferrando and God bless you! Don Alfonso Guglielmo get into the boat, which then disappears I see the last detachment Dorabella into the distance amidst the sound of drums, etc. Don Alfonso Has embarked on the galley; Never forget me! The soldiers leave, followed by the townspeople. The And may peace and the victory at last restore To take the tardy few like you who dally. sisters remain as if transfixed on the sea shore.) them. There’s a boat getting ready, Ferrando And awaiting your pleasure. Addio! Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso Scene Six No 10, Trio Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso. Ferrando and Guglielmo Guglielmo 18 O wind gently blowing One last embrace now give me. Addio! O’er ocean be playing, Recitative O tide calmly flowing Fiordiligi and Dorabella Fiordiligi and Dorabella Dorabella (as if waking from a trance) Their barque be conveying Woe past all measure. Addio! 17 Are they gone? In peace to the shore;

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 104-105 2/3/08 14:29:05 O sun brightly shining Scene Eight Fiordiligi No 11, Aria Shed happiness o’er them, A pleasant room with two chairs, a little table, etc. Ah! 22 Cease not, remorseless love, Be nature combining Three doors, two at the sides, and one at the back. Thus to torment me, Ere long to restore them Despina alone Dorabella Furies from Phlegethon To greet us once more. Ah! Still more oppress me; Recitative Pursue my anguish Despina (stirring her chocolate) E’en unto death. (Both women tear off their feminine adornments.) (The two women leave.) 20 A hell of an existence You angry basilisks It is to be in service! Consume my vitals. Despina Scene Seven From morning till evening Show the Eumenides, What ever’s happened? Don Alfonso alone. You sweat, you labour and you worry, If I survive it, And yet, for everything you do, no word of thanks. How, in the toils of love, Then the bell rings. I have Fiordiligi I breathe my last. Recitative The chocolate ready and waiting. I have to make it My griefs o’erwhelm me. Don Alfonso Yet all that I’m allowed to do is smell it. I am weary of life. (The two ladies seat themselves apart, distracted.) 19 So far all’s going splendidly! By this time If the lady can drink it, why not the servant? The two devoted slaves of Mars and Venus They would soon give me my notice Recitative Are awaiting my ‘orders’ An example of justice that takes the biscuit. Despina What is it this time? Despina For their own ‘active service’: now for the next For once I think I’ll try some. 23 Signora Dorabella, scene Ah, how lovely! Signora Fiordiligi, To bring them all together. Oh what faces, (She tastes it and wipes her mouth.) Recitative Tell me now, why this commotion? Sighs and lamentations! Someone’s coming. Dorabella Oh heavens! It must be the ladies. Stand back from me lest in my wild affliction All the better for me, Dorabella It makes my task much easier: Some cruel hurt you suffer. Desolation and ruin! There are species of creature very given to Scene Nine Close the shutters forever. changing their affections. Despina, Fiordiligi and Dorabella. Fiordiligi and Hateful the daylight, Oh, wretched lovers, to gamble on such jades a Dorabella enter in despair. Hateful the air that I’m breathing, Despina hundred guineas. Hateful my self! That gives me no clear notion. He ploughs on water, sows where the sand Despina (handing the cups of chocolate on a tray) Who can soothe my despair? confronts the wave, 21 My ladies, here is your chocolate and biscuits. Who will then console me? Fiordiligi And with a cobweb, holds the wind in custody, (Dorabella throws everything on the floor.) Be gone for pity’s sake, ah, for pity’s sake, Our lovers have departed Who all his hope reposes in women’s loyalty. Heavens above! What’s the matter? Leave me, I beg you! Leaving us broken‑hearted.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 106-107 2/3/08 14:29:06 Despina (laughing) Fiordiligi No 12, Aria Scene Ten Oh, is that all? Ah, bereft of Guglielmo 24 In lovers and in soldiers, Don Alfonso alone, then Despina Well they’ll come back. I’d not be long surviving. For constancy you look? (laughing) Recitative Dorabella Dorabella I assure you you’re totally mistook. Don Alfonso Who knows? Ah, deprived of Ferrando For in reality, 25 What a silence! The very doors and windows You’d quickly see me buried alive beside him. Void of devotion, Share in the sad bereavement! Despina (as above) Leaves ever fluttering, Pretty darlings! Why say ‘who knows’? Despina Breezes in motion, It’s not entirely their fault. Where have they gone to? Oh yes, of course. Waver no more than I’ll bring them consolation. Those simple youths But surely you forget: though you are parted, The heart of a man. Will shortly be arriving, they live to plague you yet: don’t be downhearted. Tears of the crocodile, Dorabella The conspiracy aiding by masquerading. It’s a little too soon to die Simpering faces, They’ve gone to fight a battle. Let’s think how to contrive it. Of grief for the present. Second‑hand rhapsodies, I must settle Despina: there’s a danger Find something to amuse you! Crafty embraces, She might see through the masquerade, however Despina From the beginning I could do with some help from her. All the better for them, then, Fiordiligi Are part of their plan. I’ll risk it! You will see them return loaded with honours. To amuse us? ‘What are the women for? Despinetta! Only for pleasure,’ Fiordiligi Despina Men are amused with us But what if they are killed? Despina Why surely! Isn’t it better Just at their leisure, Who’s calling? To behave as absent men do? Frown on or favour them Despina They think a good deal about you, but do quite Quite as they please. If that should happen well without you. Will you be trampled on, Don Alfonso All the better for you. women, and bear it? Boo! Dorabella This be your motto then, Fiordiligi (rising angrily) What a scandalous, wicked innuendo! Up and declare it! Despina What are you saying? They will be true whatever others may be. Flout them and jilt them Ah! Whenever you can. Despina Despina La ra la, la ta la, la ra la, la. Don Alfonso I only speak the truth. If you lose these two, Come, come, give men their due! Pretty Despina, There’s plenty more to choose from. A good lover’s a man, and not a baby! (They all leave.) I need you rather badly.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 108-109 2/3/08 14:29:06 Despina Don Alfonso These friends of yours – they’re handsome and Ferrando and Guglielmo (with affected tenderness) But I’ve no need of you, dear. Here then: listen closely. energetic? By this hand I kiss with pleasure, Persons I need not mention Both of them well endowed, Will you graciously allow me Don Alfonso Are bewailing their lovers. And have they lots of money? To behold the fair enchantress I could do you some good. Who my heart has so enslaved? Despina Don Alfonso Despina I know. They’ve all it takes to Despina (laughing to herself) To a girl like me, dear, Delight a girl. You’ll observe it when you meet them. Lord preserve us, how peculiar! Old gentlemen like you are worse than useless. Don Alfonso Shall we proceed? Funny outfits, hairy features, All they will do Sure they must be foreign creatures, Is wear themselves out in weeping and Despina Don Alfonso I’d say Turkish at a guess. lamenting. Where are they now? So you’ve no need of money. Slovakish? Turkish? Despina Don Alfonso (showing her a gold piece) Don Alfonso (aside to Despina) For certain. They’re here. What d’you think about their chances? Suppose I call them in. Despina Don Alfonso Despina (aside to Don Alfonso) Is that for me? All right, supposing Despina I’d be sick at their advances. We find them consolation – Let them appear. Men so scary and so hairy, Don Alfonso And what’s a better way than a flirtation? Are an antidote to love. Yes, if you try to deserve it. So I have found some suitors (Don Alfonso brings in Ferrando and Guglielmo Who languish for the ladies disguised.) Despina With the deepest affection. Don Alfonso, Ferrando and Guglielmo And how is that done? They are also my friends and can be trusted. Scene Eleven (aside) You’ll have to speak precisely. I will add to my tip another guinea Don Alfonso, Despina, Ferrando Well, if she has no suspicion, If you join in the plan. There’s no chance of recognition, Don Alfonso No 13, Sextet We have nothing now to fear. Very well; Despina Don Alfonso But you must be discreet. I’m not unwilling 26 I’ve the honour to present you Despina (aside, laughing) To accept your proposition. To the lady Despinetta, Funny outfits and moustaches! Despina And with those silly creatures – easy! And, if nothing can prevent you, I’d say something like Slovakish, Nothing easier, go on. But listen: You yourselves can ask her help. Or from Turkey at a guess.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 110-111 2/3/08 14:29:07 Fiordiligi and Dorabella (from within) Fiordiligi and Dorabella Fiordiligi (with excitement) Fiordiligi Eh, Despina! Ola, Despina! No, begone and come not near us! What’s wrong? Today of all days But why are they in our house? Such discourteous provocation To intrude uninvited? Despina Kindles fury in my heart. Guglielmo It’s the ladies! Ah! My love, forgive this outrage, Don Alfonso It was a liberty From afar defend my heart. Gracious! Goodness! Am I waking, or am I dreaming? We know: but if you ask what force hither Don Alfonso (to Despina) My old friends from the Balkans. brought us… Now is the moment! Ferrando and Guglielmo (aside) You here? How so? Since when? How long? Recitative No retreating: I’ll join you later. Oh, enchanting! Their vexation What has brought you? ’Twas Love! Kindles rapture in my heart. Well, well, I am delighted! (He retires.) (aside to them) Fiordiligi Do play up to me. Heavens, be silent! Despina and Don Alfonso (aside, Don Alfonso Fiordiligi and Dorabella (entering) from the door) Ferrando Ferrando Wicked girl, this is an outrage! Most suspicious indignation! It can’t be Don Alfonso! Yes, Love, or rather You, with men, in conversation. Women always will act a part. Put an end to this intrusion, You yourselves were the cause that hither We forbid their presence here. Guglielmo brought us. Recitative Our dear old tutor! Don Alfonso (as though entering) (The ladies retreat, pursued by the men.) Despina, Ferrando and Guglielmo 27 What an outcry! What infamy! (They embrace him with enthusiasm.) Pardon, ladies, we implore you! What a loud demonstration! Guglielmo Trembling here you see before you Are you crazy? Don Alfonso We had scarce apprehended Two poor things who would adore you, Calm yourselves girls, I beg you, Most unexpected meeting! The incandescent sunlight of your glances… Love alone must bear the blame. The turmoil is attracting all the neighbours. What’s the matter? What’s happened? Despina (to Don Alfonso) Ferrando Fiordiligi and Dorabella You’ve met these men before? …Then like moths to a lantern… How insulting, how audacious! Dorabella (furiously) How insulting, how audacious! Look there, outrageous. Don Alfonso Guglielmo Go! Begone, I blush for shame! Men! In this house of virtue. Of course I’ve met them! They’re …Or like butterflies mad with love, and dying… The closest of my friends, Despina, Ferrando and Guglielmo Don Alfonso (without seeing the men) And best of good companions; Ferrando But one moment, only hear us! What’s wrong with that? As you will find them also. …We came fluttering before you…

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 112-113 2/3/08 14:29:07 Guglielmo (Happy lovers who have found it!) Two men who are so talented… Come near and inspect us. …And behind and around you… Fate and silent stars united, I’ve known them for a long time. These noble moustaches, Love’s devotion cannot move! The latest in fashion, Ferrando and Guglielmo Wretches, thus on grief intruding, Fiordiligi Expressive of passion …To crave your kind compassion or else to With vain hope yourselves deluding, But why, what good can we do? Seductively twine! perish! May our constancy unbounded Warning and example prove! Guglielmo (The ladies leave in anger.) Fiordiligi You can console us, How can they dare! (The ladies prepare to leave. Ferrando calls You can comfort our pain. Scene Twelve Fiordiligi back, Guglielmo calls Dorabella.) You see before you Ferrando, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso. The two Dorabella The men of all men who live but to adore you! lovers laugh heartily, mocking Don Alfonso. I don’t know what to answer. Recitative Ferrando No. 15, Aria (Despina leaves, frightened.) 29 Stay, I implore you! 30 O vision so charming, No 16, Trio Your anger disarming, Don Alfonso Fiordiligi Guglielmo (to Dorabella) With sympathy warming 31 You seem delighted! Bold intruders, quickly Remain with us, I beg you. Deign on us to shine! Begone from this house of virtue! Do not profane us (aside, to Don Alfonso) Whate’er you may bestow on us Ferrando and Guglielmo With the base words of your detested homage What about that? We doubly will render, Yes, we’re delighted. Or our hearts, or our hearing, or our affection. With passion as impetuous, It’s vain for you and any others, to threaten Don Alfonso (aside to Guglielmo) Or blandishment as tender. Don Alfonso To assail our resolve. Our troth untainted They’re not gone yet. No longer reject us! Downright excited! We have solemnly plighted to absent lovers: (to the ladies) Come near and inspect us! We to them will remain faithful for ever, They’ve chosen the wrong moment, Pray state your objection In the face of all danger steadfast together. But in kindness to me, do not refuse them. To form or complexion, Ferrando and Guglielmo Suggest an improvement Downright excited. No. 14, Aria Dorabella (angrily) In figures and poses – 28 Like a fortress in ocean founded, And what makes you excuse them? We’re proud of our ankles, Don Alfonso Though the billows may surge around it, Our eyebrows, our noses. You laugh too early. So my heart relies undaunted Don Alfonso Do look at our ankles, On its virtue and on its love. Oh! Nothing; if you knew them Have a look at our eyebrows, Ferrando and Guglielmo There’s a strength in vows, once plighted, You would treat them with more kindness Or tickle our noses, Don’t be so surly.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 114-115 2/3/08 14:29:08 Don Alfonso Guglielmo (playfully) From sorrow and sadness Scene Fifteen Laughter so clamorous, We’ll let you off with half! My heart can beguile; Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso; From men so amorous, Tho’ hunger distress me then Despina Will call attention Ferrando (as before) And languor oppress me If they should hear! Or out of friendship Tho’ hunger oppress me. Ferrando and Guglielmo (off‑stage) (aside) Be content with a quarter Her glance were Ambrosia, 2 To die is all I long for You’re too uproarious, And nectar her smile. Rather than this distraction. Don’t be vainglorious, Don Alfonso Premature laughter Ah, my poor young innocents, Don Alfonso (off‑stage) Oft ends in a tear. Not quite so fast! I still (Ferrando and Guglielmo leave.) Your patience must be stronger: Intend to win my wager. Forbear the fatal action! Ferrando and Guglielmo (laughing aside, compact disc TWO Guglielmo trying not to laugh) Fiordiligi and Dorabella They’re inconsolable! The bet remains then? Scene Fourteen Your fate you still defy? Heavens, they sound so desperate! Mirth uncontrollable A pretty little garden with a grass bank at each side. Must have its way, Fiordiligi and Dorabella. For there’s nobody near. Don Alfonso Ferrando and Guglielmo I do, sir. And for my next move Let go of me! Recitative The seducers confront them in the garden; No 18, Finale Don Alfonso The strategy I’ll tell you when you get there. Fiordiligi and Dorabella Don Alfonso 1 32 When you’ve quite finished laughing Why has fate my life enshrouded Do be patient! May I know what the joke is? Guglielmo In a mystery of sorrow? And what about our dinner? Why are happy days o’erclouded (Enter Ferrando and Guglielmo, each carrying a By a gloomy haze of care? small bottle, followed by Don Alfonso.) Guglielmo Ferrando Ah! While he was here to cheer me Oh, what a question! Does it matter? Brighter yet rose every morrow, You will see, and perhaps you will believe us When the battle is over Never shade of grief came near me, Ferrando and Guglielmo When we’ve lightened your purse. Just to dream of his love sustains the lover. All was well, for he was there. This arsenic contains the power Why has fate my life enshrouded To end my cruel pains! Ferrando (playfully) No. 17, Aria In a mystery of sorrow? Tell us, how much you’ll give us 33 Her eye so alluring Why are happy days o’erclouded (They drink, and throw away the bottles. Turning To settle up the wager! My hope reassuring By a gloomy haze of care? round they see the two ladies.)

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 116-117 2/3/08 14:29:08 Fiordiligi and Dorabella Don Alfonso Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso Dorabella Can they be taking poison? Can you behold them dying? Yes, but what can we do? Are they dying? Never a word replying? Don Alfonso If only for a moment Despina Fiordiligi Alas! There’s no denying, Some little pity show. Some life is still remaining, I suppose in such conditions Their last half hour is flying, Tenderly support them, Some support we ought to give. No hope of life remains! Fiordiligi and Dorabella Try to restore the feeling. Help us, help us, will no one hear us? (to Don Alfonso) Dorabella (approaching) Fiordiligi and Dorabella Alas! There’s no one near us! We’ll leave you here to watch them They’ve a certain strange attraction. Oh, what a tragic spectacle! Despina! While we for aid or remedy My heart is frozen quite. In frantic haste will run. Fiordiligi (approaching) Despina (off‑stage) Surely there’s a case for action! Ferrando and Guglielmo Just a minute. (Despina and Don Alfonso leave.) You are the ones responsible. Yet sweet the bitter potion Fiordiligi and Dorabella Dorabella If you our life’s devotion Despina! Fiordiligi and Dorabella Ah, how cold, how cold his skin is! With one last look requite. Never was fate so spiteful! Despina (entering) An action half so frightful Fiordiligi Fiordiligi and Dorabella What’s the matter? Was never seen or heard! Nothing like as cold as mine is! Oh, what a tragic spectacle! Ah, what a sight appalling! My heart is frozen quite. Is this what Fate decreed? Ferrando and Guglielmo (aside) Dorabella This farce is too delightful! Does his heart beat? Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo Don Alfonso I would not miss a word! and Don Alfonso Oh, ’twas a deed unhallowed! (sighing aloud) Fiordiligi Oh, that the night would cover me, The deadly poison swallowed Ah! Not even slightly. Veiling the awful horror. And throes of anguish followed! Coldness and anguish come over me, Oh, this was love indeed! Fiordiligi and Dorabella (standing at a distance Dorabella Feeling and sight are failing, from the men) This one’s beating very lightly. My heart with terror is quailing, Despina The wretched things are sighing! To speak I know not how. Well, in this sad extremity, Fiordiligi and Dorabella It’s folly most amazing Fiordiligi Ah! If help is long arriving (Ferrando and Guglielmo fall onto the grass banks.) To stand here idly gazing. What should we do? There’s no hope of their surviving.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 118-119 2/3/08 14:29:09 Ferrando and Guglielmo (aside) What I shall speak in: Took it internally Despina See how kindly and compassionate From Dutch to Syrian, Caused them to mottle Now then support them, They are gradually becoming. Welsh or Illyrian, And in a moment And firmly hold. We shall see them soon relenting, Celtic or Arabic, Fell on the floor. Pity is akin to love. Greek or Hindu. Fiordiligi and Dorabella See, we are ready! Despina Fiordiligi and Dorabella Don Alfonso Don’t get excited This disaster most appalling So many languages (They put their hands on the men’s brows.) Or overheated; Must the heart to pity move. Are quite unneeded. Just pay attention Matters more serious Despina To what I do. Scene Sixteen Wait your attention. Keep calm and steady! Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo, They’ve taken arsenic, Coraggio! That’s done the trick! Despina disguised as a doctor, and Don Alfonso What shall we do? Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso From death we’ve got them! He’s got a magnet, Don Alfonso Fiordiligi and Dorabella How will he use it? Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso 3 Now, ladies, calm yourselves. Tell us, good doctor, See, they awake again. Here’s the physician! What shall we do? Notice they take again! Despina (she touches each mock invalid on the Oh, such a doctor’s worth head with a magnet and pulls it along their bodies) Ferrando and Guglielmo (aside) Despina (she feels the pulse and the brow of one I am a pupil of Whole mines of gold! A clever masquerade, and then the other) Doctor Mesmer, It is Despina. Completely comatose, And he invented it. Ferrando and Guglielmo (getting to their feet) System much shaken, In its simplicity, Where is this? What heavenly region? Despina Say was it from a dose Passing in mystery Who is he, serene and mighty? Salvete, amabiles That they have taken! All facts of history, Do I wake in realms Elysian? Bones puelles! And if so, say what it was, Is all his own! (Ferrando to Fiordiligi and Guglielmo to Dorabella) If cold or hot it was. Are you Pallas or Aphrodite? Fiordiligi and Dorabella In many doses No, it’s you my fair enslaver. His speech is quite beyond Or only one. Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso Yours the charm my limbs enchaining; Our comprehension! See, they are quivering, If my pains can win your favour, Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso Shivering, shivering, Grant me torment more intense! Despina They’ve taken arsenic Reviving silently, You’ve but to order me Straight from the bottle. Excited violently. (They embrace the ladies tenderly and kiss their hands.)

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 120-121 2/3/08 14:29:09 Despina and Don Alfonso (to the ladies) Fiordiligi and Dorabella It is all dissimulation: Slight derangement still remaining; Such a thing a modest woman Women’s ways too well I know. They intend you no offence. Would consent to do for no one. It’s an insult to my sadness, Ferrando and Guglielmo (aside) Fiordiligi and Dorabella It’s an insult to my love! Here’s a tableau most amusing, That may be, but such extravagance Men desiring, girls refusing, Savours more of base pretence. Despina and Don Alfonso Nothing could be more confusing Here’s a tableau most amusing Than this anger and all this fuss. Ferrando and Guglielmo (aside, while the others Men desiring and girls refusing. Great would be my indignation repeat their verses) Nothing could be more confusing/ridiculous Were they not to answer ‘No’. Now is laughter uncontrollable. Than this anger and all this fuss. What delightful innocence! (Ferrando to Fiordiligi and Guglielmo to Dorabella) Ferrando and Guglielmo (aside) Goddess, must you scorn undo me? Here’s a tableau most amusing, Men desiring and girls refusing, Fiordiligi and Dorabella Nothing could be more confusing/ridiculous Oh, why will he thus pursue me? Than this anger and all this fuss.

Ferrando and Guglielmo (to the ladies) Fiordiligi and Dorabella Will you not with smiles renew me? (aside) Say no more, the Devil take you! Now is laughter uncontrollable. May the poison madder make you! What delightful innocence! Or if love be worse than madness (to the ladies) Not a pang will we allay. Let me kiss you e’er I perish, Just one kiss for me to cherish. (The sisters repeat this verse while the other four sing as follows.) Fiordiligi and Dorabella Heaven! He’d kiss me? Despina and Don Alfonso Here’s a tableau most amusing, Despina and Don Alfonso (to the ladies) Men desiring, girls refusing, Wretched creature! Nothing could be more ridiculous Title page of the original edition of Just one act of pure good nature! Than this anger and all this fuss. da Ponte's libretto for Così fan tutte

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 122-123 2/3/08 14:29:10 Act II Despina Fiordiligi Dorabella Scene One ‘Why not women!’ Do think what you are saying, And then? A room. Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Despina Well then behave like women. How could you be so careless? Do you think that we’ll believe you? Despina Recitative Dorabella Why should our house provide idle gossip? And then! Despina But how? We’d risk our lovers’ anger, Join them in conversation! 4 Well, I declare, you are And their faith in our vows rashly endanger? (aside) A funny pair of young ladies! Despina Down go the first defences. By treating love as a diversion: Despina Fiordiligi If the moment offers Do you think they would cherish Fiordiligi Oh, do be quiet! Don’t neglect a good chance. Sometimes be fickle, Such unworthy suspicion? What could we find to say? What have we got to laugh at? At other times be constant. Be formal or coquettish, Dorabella Despina Despina But avoid the disgrace that comes when women Reputation with ladies of position Talk of the weather! Not at me, Miss! Believe that men have scruples; Honourable as we are, Why you’re no more like women than bits of Enjoy the figs, but don’t forget the apples. By a slander may perish. leather! Fiordiligi Well, at what then? Fiordiligi (aside) Despina No 19, Aria You horrid girl! As far as that goes, 5 At fifteen a girl already (to Despina) Must be truly wise and worldly. Despina The risk is not too serious. I think the way She must know for good or evil Yourselves. Should there be any gossip, You talk is disgusting. The men were after me. What the devil does with his tail; If she knows the little catches Dorabella Despina Dorabella Which a little experience teaches, Ourselves? Give it a try then! Who would believe that? By pretending and delighting, For I truly believe you’ll find it a distraction She will surely tame the male. Despina From the grief that has bereft you. Despina Modest and wary Yourselves! For example, Oh, thank you! Is a maid not Yet all inviting, Are you women, or not? Try suiting talk to action, Of favours chary They were soldiers who left you, to show your Good enough to have a beau, Yet all delighting; Fiordiligi sympathy Or two if she can get them? All charms revealing, Why not women! With military matters, try recruiting! Do let them call again. All heart concealing;

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 124-125 2/3/08 14:29:11 Smiling so gushingly, Dorabella Fiordiligi Dorabella Lying unblushingly, I am astounded; Oh, you’ve acquired With such careful precautions, Spare no expedient For a maid such ideas are simply dreadful. A latitude of conscience. What should we say Could anything go wrong? Now for the strangers. To make obedient, To our fiancés? There is one point unsettled – Handsome or comely, Fiordiligi To arrange how the spoils shall be divided. Ugly and homely, She must be quite demented. Dorabella Fiordiligi Anything else in the As if she could persuade us Nothing. It’s you who must decide, dear. Shape of a man. To adopt her suggestion. The affair will be over. (aside) They’ll know nothing about it. Dorabella Artful in scheming, There’s no need to upset them. You know the Dorabella I’m quite decided. Artless in seeming, proverb, Oh, quite out of the question Stooping to conquer ‘Where ignorance is bliss’. If you look at it that way. No 20, Duet Be ever her plan. 7 I prefer the gentle dark one, By art alluring Fiordiligi With the greater sense of fun. Victims securing Fiordiligi But our affection? Queen of the nation What other way, dear, Fiordiligi Gracious and glorious, Could it ever be looked at? Dorabella Very well, I’ll take the fair one Ever victorious, Do you believe it proper Runs in the old direction; And the comedy’s begun. She wins the day. For two ladies engaged to be married We only seek diversion to ward off melancholy I see they’re weakening To follow her example? While they are absent. Dorabella By their demeanour. There is nothing in that to be ashamed of. To his words of ardent passion Clever Despina, Dorabella Jokingly will I reply. She knows the way. Not really proper Fiordiligi But I don’t see the harm. Very true! Fiordiligi (She leaves.) Sigh and glance in his own fashion Fiordiligi Dorabella I’ll return each glance and sigh. Scene Two Think of the gossip! Well then? Fiordiligi and Dorabella We’d never live it down. Dorabella Fiordiligi He will say, ‘Behold my anguish!’ Recitative Dorabella Well then, Fiordiligi But we could tell them As you wish! But remember, Fiordiligi 6 Well, sister! What do you think? They come to see Despina. I’m blameless if it brings complications. He will say, ‘For you I languish!’

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 126-127 2/3/08 14:29:11 Fiordiligi and Dorabella Fiordiligi and Dorabella accompanied by Don (The barge leaves the shore and disappears.) For a scene make you ready. We will pass the time in pleasure. Alfonso enter from one side: attendants in rich I’ll be ‘my lord’, you shall enact ‘my lady’. With each other we will vie. liveries receive them. Ferrando I’m gasping, I’m diffident No 22, Quartet (As they leave, they meet Don Alfonso.) No 21, Duet and Chorus And I tremble all over. (He takes Dorabella by the hand; Despina takes Ferrando and Guglielmo Fiordiligi’s.) 9 Guglielmo Scene Three Gentle zephyr, softly sighing, 11 The strange magic of beauty enthralls a lover! Now give me your hand Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso To the strains of love replying, And come forward a pace. In the ear of yonder fair maiden Don Alfonso (to the lovers) All my longing, my vows repeat! Recitative Their gratitude is evident. Since you will say nothing, Don Alfonso Take my kisses, breathe them o’er her, I’ll speak in your place. 8 Come at once to the garden. Murmur low how I adore her! Fiordiligi (to the ladies) You most fortunate ladies! It’s amazing! Take my tears, and with them laden We greet you! The humblest of slaves Such hamony! Such voices! Pour the offering at her feet. Is imploring your pardon! This is truly spectacular – enchanting! Dorabella His sorrow beholding, With a spell they’ll surround you. Chorus Pray be assured we’re glad once more to meet you. Your heart do not harden; Gentle zephyr, softly sighing, Oh light be his sentence! Dorabella All my whispered vows repeat. Ferrando Whatever can it be? Dear lady. Ferrando and Guglielmo (repeating the last word (During the chorus, Ferrando and Guglielmo come Guglielmo in the same tone) Don Alfonso off the boat with garlands of flowers. Don Alfonso No, dearest ladies. …Sentence!… Come, they’ll astound you! and Despina accompany them to the ladies who are stunned into silence.) Ferrando (to Guglielmo) (They leave.) Speak for the two. Don Alfonso Recitative …Nor doubt his repentance… Scene Four Fiordiligi and Dorabella Guglielmo (to Ferrando) A garden by the seashore, with grassy seats and two 10 What is this masquerading? No, no, I’ll follow you. Ferrando and Guglielmo (as before) stone tables. At the landing-place a boat adorned …Repentance!… with flowers. Ferrando, Guglielmo, Fiordiligi, Despina (to Ferrando and Guglielmo) Don Alfonso Despina, Don Alfonso, sailors and servants. Now for your speech, take courage! Oh, this is too ridiculous! Don Alfonso Ferrando and Guglielmo and a band of singers Or have you lost Such ceremonious fashions …If love cannot move you, and musicians in the boat; Despina in the garden; The use of your tongues completely? Are utterly exploded. Despinetta, Compassion must try.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 128-129 2/3/08 14:29:12 Ferrando and Guglielmo (repeating the last two Scene Five Ferrando (sottovoce, as he passes Guglielmo) Guglielmo (with excitement) lines, with a sigh) Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando and Guglielmo. Now for the fateful moment. Ah, but the poison had an essence (if you’ll excuse … If love cannot move you Dorabella on Guglielmo’s arm; Fiordiligi with My boldness) which is kindled Compassion must try. Ferrando, without giving him her arm. They make Fiordiligi Into fire by your presence! a little silent scene, gazing at each other, sighing, What was your observation? (The others stroll off-stage.) Don Alfonso (to the ladies) laughing, etc. This is merely a token, Ferrando You’re silent, did you hear me? Will you deign to accept it? Just a recommendation You’re silent, what’s your answer? Recitative To follow our example. You’re laughing, oh, you mock me. Fiordiligi Dorabella 12 Isn’t the weather lovely! Dorabella (to Guglielmo) A heart? Despina (standing in front of the two ladies) Shall we also take the air? Then with your permission Ferrando Ferrando I’ll give your reply. I find it rather too warm. Guglielmo A symbol to represent the heart Past things are past undoing, Only too pleased to. Which beats in my bosom, which beats for you Old loves beyond renewing! Dorabella (They stroll on. After a moment of silence…) alone! Sever the bond for ever Oh, how lovely the trees are! Oh, dear! Symbol of servitude. Dorabella (aside) (She takes Dorabella’s hand, Don Alfonso takes Dorabella Guglielmo I beg your pardon? A wonderful present. Fiordiligi’s; they break the garlands and they lace Very lovely! But alas them around the arms of the lovers. Then to the It seems there’s far more leaf than fruit. Guglielmo Guglielmo lovers.) There’s a feeling inside me, Will you wear it? Now take my hand in token Fiordiligi An awful desperate feeling. The ice has now been broken, It is cooler I’m afraid it will kill me. Dorabella Then sigh no more. In the shade of the pine trees. I must not. Pray let me take your arm! (The others continue their scene silently in the You attempt to seduce an honest woman. Despina and Don Alfonso (to one side, sottovoce) distance.) And now we must be going Ferrando And leave them to their wooing. With greatest pleasure, Dorabella Guglielmo I’ll wager with the Devil Your wish is my commandment. I’m not the least surprised at it. I love you! A surrender will ensue. (to Guglielmo) Fiordiligi The poison that you swallowed Dorabella (They leave.) You’re too civil. Would unhinge any system. Oh, for shame!

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 130-131 2/3/08 14:29:12 Guglielmo I take it with pleasure, Dorabella (They leave with their arms around each other.) But I adore you! But that which you ask for … How can I! No longer is free. Scene Six Dorabella Guglielmo Fiordiligi and Ferrando. Fiordiligi enters in Guglielmo No, really! Close your eyes. agitation, followed by Ferrando. No, do not deceive me! Guglielmo What beating is that? Recitative Do you reproach me? (He turns her face gently to one side, removes the Ferrando Dorabella miniature and replaces it with the pendant.) 14 Cruel one, would you leave me? Dorabella It’s your own heart, believe me, I am greatly to blame. That here says pit-pat. Dorabella (aside) Fiordiligi Oh, how my confusion Guglielmo I see a basilisk, Guglielmo And blushes to hide. A hydra, a vicious scorpion. The blame is equal Ah, I hear it pit-a-pit-a-pat. If you’re willing to share it. Dorabella Guglielmo (aside) Ferrando Will you wear it? ’Tis your own that mutters pit-a-pat. Ferrando forgive me. All too clear is your answer. How shall I confide? Basilisk, hydra and vicious scorpion and, if there be Dorabella (after a moment, with a sigh) Dorabella and Guglielmo (to Dorabella) In Libyan desert monsters more appalling, I’ll wear it! Hear it pit-a-pit-a-pit-a pat. Your eyes you may open. Then to those you’d compare me. The heart that was mine, love, Guglielmo (aside) For you now is beating, Fiordiligi Oh, forgive me, Ferrando! Dorabella To you is repeating I know it, I know it. (to Dorabella) What folly! My own pit-a-pat. You destroy my composure. Let me declare it! Guglielmo Guglielmo (he tries to exchange her miniature for Accept it, Ferrando No 23, Duet his pendant) 13 To replace it with rapture. This heart that I give you With you let me leave it. Resistance is vain. I pray you to treasure, And yours in return, love, Dorabella Dorabella and Guglielmo Fiordiligi Oh, render to me. No, that may not be. Oh happy communion Go and no more molest me. Of new love requiting, Dorabella Guglielmo To pleasure inviting, Ferrando The heart that you give me Oh come now, receive it. What exquisite pain! Just one glance will suffice me.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 132-133 2/3/08 14:29:13 Fiordiligi ’Neath these branches, among these shadows, She reviled me, abused me, Guglielmo Leave me! I will hide it for evermore. Giving positive evidence in this manner; It is always wise to be a little suspicious. I will purge this base emotion You can safely remain sure of her honour. Ferrando With my love and my devotion. Ferrando Yes, I leave you, I will banish the dread remembrance Guglielmo By heaven, now tell me, Since those proud eyes command me to obey Which with horror shames my heart. Bravo you, bravo me! Are you suggesting Dorabella is false? you. Ah, my love so true! So tender! Brava my true Penelope! But no, you’re joking! Doing her an injustice. Oh Heaven! That look was tender, those eyes What have I to give you now? Come, let me embrace you She loves me, adores no one but me. betray you. For your love I can but render For such wonderful tidings Faithless heart and broken vow. Oh, my faithful . Guglielmo Scene Seven Clearly, a love so intense that to show it, Fiordiligi alone Ferrando Here is the proof she gave me. (She leaves.) And my Dorabella? Do you know it? Recitative Did she reject your wooing? Ferrando (furiously) Fiordiligi compact disc THREE How could I ever doubt it? I need no answer, Gave you my portrait! 15 He’s leaving. Listen!… Ah no! No, let, him leave me! Knowing how much she loves me. Oh perfidy! So hastens from my presence the fatal object Scene Eight Of my folly and weakness. Ah, what a torment, Ferrando and Guglielmo Guglielmo Guglielmo I suffer in his presence… A just affliction, And yet, in confidence, Where are you going? I deserve all my anguish. At such a moment, Recitative It wouldn’t be so bad if you did have some How could I dare give audience Ferrando (very happily) doubts. Ferrando To the passions of this man? To treat with jesting 1 We’ve done it! Poor Don Alfonso! To tear the heart out of her faithless bosom, An intention so serious? Oh, my beloved, Ferrando And to avenge love and devotion slighted. You’d be right to condemn me, leave me for ever. Guglielmo What’s that? This passion, this sudden burning in my senses A skirmish? An ambush? Guglielmo Is not blameless affliction: it’s madness, and Guglielmo Calm yourself! weakness, Ferrando Just in a manner of speaking, Confusion, void of reason, Neither. A total victory! Fiordiligi (I wish I could sugar the pill). Ferrando Fatal error! It’s falsehood and treason! Is modesty incarnate. No, release me! No 25, Rondo She’s as chase as a lily, Ferrando 16 Ah, my love, I pray forgive me And as true to Guglielmo as any compass. Heavens! Are you suggesting Dorabella is faithless? Guglielmo For the wrong my soul has harboured, She dismissed me with outrage, Have you suceeded? Even if I suspected? Are you crazy?

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 134-135 2/3/08 14:29:13 Will you indeed abandon yourself to ruin Permutations, fluctuations, Recitative Dorabella For a worthless woman? That to hear the mournful tale Ferrando Indeed, Despina, Let not woman’s folly drive you to desperation. Of a lover’s provocations 3 Ah! My brain is distracted! The voice of reason I resisted in vain. The wicked wretch It would make the cheek grow pale! Is overwhelmed by the conflicting urges of passion So hotly pursued me, I had to listen. He wooed me Ferrando Charming creatures! We adore them! So completely unheard of is my dilemma, With a fire that would melt a heart of stone. Traitress! Such protestations and promises, And they know it! Far, far too well! That there’s no one, but no one, Tender glances and fond embraces Every day we bow before them, Competent to advise me… Alfonso, Alfonso, Despina In a moment forgotten Ne’er against their power rebel, How you must laugh at me Hot as a little demon! As a vision of night! Well they know it. And at my stupid failure. (Fiordiligi enters.) But, alas, their vacillations, complications, But I will have revenge! Oh faithless woman! Oh goodness, here’s your sister – Guglielmo Are enough to break the spell! You have spurned my devotion. And furious. Don’t ask me to explain. Bravely soldiers may protect them, Now dread my retribution. Sailors guard the seas afar, Retribution, empty word when my heart Fiordiligi Ferrando Priests may counsel and direct them, Pleads for her pardon. Oh, you wretches! What can I live for? Lawyers argue at the Bar – (Don Alfonso meets Guglielmo and stays to listen.) It is entirely your fault What can I do now? Yet the ladies’ retractations, abjurations, That it’s turned out so badly. What aim in life is left me? Baffle men of peace and war! No 27, Cavatina Pity a broken heart, Lovely forms and charming faces! 4 Her treason is poison Despina Grant me your guidance. Nature, in her kindly plan, That seizes my heart. What’s the matter? Showered them lavishly with graces, Though her truth may falter, Why are you taking on so? Guglielmo Ever since the world began; Yet mine cannot alter, My friend I must admit But, the ladies’ aberrations, I still hear within me Dorabella I’ve no guidance to give! Hesitations, The voices of love! Has anything distressed you? Mystify adoring man! Ferrando But what feminine evasions, Scene Ten Fiordiligi Treacherous and heartless! And mental reservations, A room with several doors, little tables and a mirror. The Devil take us all, Scarce a day had I left her. O ladies, ladies, ladies, lovely ladies, Dorabella and Despina; then Fiordiligi Myself, you, you too, Don Alfonso, those evil When you talk of love’s vexations strangers Guglielmo All my pity’s for the man! Recitative And every soul in creation! It’s a more wicked world than we had dreamed of! Despina No 26, Aria Scene Nine 5 Now at last you are acting Dorabella 2 Ladies have such variations, Ferrando, then Guglielmo and Don Alfonso As a same woman should do! Are you out of your senses?

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 136-137 2/3/08 14:29:14 Fiordiligi But makes the heart a slave, Fiordiligi Will follow my example, we’ll join them, we’ll Worse than madness, Then on his power presuming, Could I trust Dorabella? join them. Total disaster. I’m in love, and yet I know Takes back the joy he gave! No, I have cause to doubt her. Softly, what a notion! It’s the only way left us My love is not only for Guglielmo! Full of contentment, a warm contentment, Or does folly possess me? If I could dare it, To escape from temptation. If you his rule obey, The uniforms would serve us Despina But bitter his resentment Which our lovers left behind… Don Alfonso (aside) Even better! If you dispute his sway. They shall! Despina! Oh I see what she’s after! Nothing can you deny him, Despina! (Re‑enter Despina with the uniforms.) Dorabella Whate’er he bids you do, Go ahead, seize your chance. Sister, It’s folly to deny him: Despina (entering) Did you call? A hundred thousand kisses! And you will find it so! Despina (to Fiordiligi) Yours the fair one, mine the dark one: Here they are. Let’s have a double wedding. (Dorabella and Despina leave.) Fiordiligi Go at once to my dressing room, Scene Eleven Fiordiligi Fiordiligi Take the key of the wardrobe, Fiordiligi alone; then Ferrando, Guglielmo and Now then, What are you saying? Rummage behind the dresses and bring me quickly Don Alfonso in another room; later Despina Have some post‑horses ordered, Have you no pang of conscience, The sabres and the jackets and both the cloaks Let them wait at the gate. Tell Dorabella that No concern, no remorse? Our poor fiancés That you will find there. Recitative I’ll talk to her here. Have departed in grief this very morning. Fiordiligi Despina Your attitude shocks me. 7 All the world is conspiring What do you think you’re doing? Despina Where on earth did you learn it? To compel me to yield. But no, I’ll perish It’s not like you at all. How can you do it? Oh, very well, Miss. Before complying! I’ll tell Despina, Fiordiligi (aside) (Ferrando, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso are seen Go on and don’t ask questions! But I really believe she’s going crazy. Dorabella through the open door, watching her from the next In our condition it’s better to be honest. room.) Despina (aside) Scene Twelve If he comes here again, Well, what a way to talk, Miss High and Mighty! Fiordiligi; later Ferrando. Guglielmo and No 28, Aria She must send him away. The man I first loved 6 Don Alfonso in the other room Young love is unrelenting, I’ll not betray. (She leaves.) A serpent full of wiles, While lovers are lamenting, Guglielmo (to his friends) Fiordiligi Fiordiligi Love only nods and smiles! Bravissima! It’s the last chance. Will it fail us? This is Ferrando’s jacket, He comes all unassuming, She is chaste as Diana. Did you hear her? If only Dorabella It’s exactly my size, and Guglielmo’s

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 138-139 2/3/08 14:29:14 Will suffice Dorabella. None will suspect us Fiordiligi (Don Alfonso restrains Guglielmo from bursting in.) Ferrando (entering) And battle’s fury not affright us. We’ll join Leave, ah, leave me! Well, well! Our lovers, all danger scorning, Fiordiligi and Ferrando Until death can unite us. Ferrando Now together, by love united, Guglielmo Then all is over. Life shall seem no longer blighted. Well, what? No 29, Duet Sorrow past shall be requited Fiordiligi Ferrando 8 All too slowly the hours are fleeting, With delight and joy divine. What on earth can you be asking? Well, your dear Fiordiligi? Till that happy hour of meeting; (They leave.) Thus arrayed, all danger scorning, Ferrando Guglielmo To my lover’s arms I fly. End my pain, or my existence. Scene Thirteen My torment, flower of evil, the devil devour her, To his beating heart he’ll press me, And me as well. And with tender joy caress me. Fiordiligi Guglielmo and Don Alfonso; then Ferrando To his prayer there’s no resistance! Ferrando (ironically) Ferrando (to Fiordiligi, as he enters) Recitative We’re in the same case. While, alas your absence mourning, Ferrando Guglielmo (entering with Don Alfonso) 9 I am left alone to die. Don’t reject me! That’s enough for me! Have I been dreaming? Guglielmo How did I ever trust her? Ah, stop it! Admit that we’re both defeated, Fiordiligi (He takes her hand and kisses it.) And think up some good way of Don Alfonso Retaliation. Do not taunt me, I implore you. For goodness sake be quiet! Leave, ah, leave me! Fiordiligi Love direct me! Don Alfonso Guglielmo I tell you what: marry them. Ferrando Ferrando Let someone pluck my beard out No, I adore you! Turn away your gaze no longer, Or brand me with an iron Guglielmo (He takes his sword from the table and unsheathes See in me a faithful suitor, Then I’ll leap into that volcano’s crater I would far sooner marry it, etc.) Husband or lover, whate’er you grant me. Could that be Fiordiligi? The mother of the Gorgon. If my very presence pain you, (very tenderly) My Penelope, the Diana of chastity? If I have no hope to gain you, Be my love, delay no more! Dissembler, double dealer, Ferrando This alone I pray you grant me, Imposter, serpent, traitress! Or sleep in Vulcan’s smithy. Now by this dear hand to die. Fiordiligi (trembling) Frail am I, oh God, I weaken: Don Alfonso (happily, aside) Guglielmo (He falls on his knees.) Do with me as you desire. I’ll let him blow off steam. Surrounded by the Furies.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 140-141 2/3/08 14:29:15 Don Alfonso Cannot blame her for that, the fault is Nature’s; Scene Fifteen Sing a festive song to greet them. Then you’d remain a bachelor for ever? Be she youthful, aged, a scarecrow, a beauty! A very luxurious and illuminated saloon with Fill the air with joyful sound. Say the words after me: Così fan tutte! musicians at the back. A table laid for four persons, Ferrando with silver cutlery etc.. Despina, servants, musicians Despina and Don Alfonso (sottovoce, leaving by If I never discover Ferrando, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso and later Don Alfonso separate doors) A woman who is worthy! Così fan tutte! It’s a merry jest we’ve plotted No 31, Finale And absurd as any play! Don Alfonso Scene Fourteen Despina (to the servants) Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso and Despina 12 There’s not a lot to choose from, Come, my friends, no more delaying. Scene Sixteen But how would others fare if those were wanting? Hurry with your preparations, Recitative Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando Guglielmo, servants Deep down, you do still love them, Bring the table decorations, Despina (entering) and musicians. As the couples move forward, the Although you have contrived to pluck their Set it all in rich array. 11 Well, gentlemen, you’ve won them. chorus sings and the orchestra starts up a march. feathers. Let us do our best to honour And my two pretty ladies An exceptional occasion. Are agreeable to marry you, so on your part Chorus Guglielmo (to the musicians) I ventured 13 May the love, that has united them, I’m afraid so! For be sure a double wedding bring delight beyond expressing! To promise you’d be quite ready Does not happen every day. To start the honeymoon this evening. I must be May good fortune be benevolent, Ferrando off now And with every other blessing Afraid so! Chorus (servants) In search of a notary May their offspring come to favour them, Let us help her, as she asks us, To draw up the marriage contract; meanwhile Soon to equal them in joy! Don Alfonso With the special preparations, the ladies May I suggest that this evening And the table decorations Will be pleased to receive you. We have a double wedding. But wait, We will set in rich array. (The chorus leaves: four servants remain to serve the Now, are you quite contented? While a verse I shall sing you, bridal couples, who seat themselves at the table.) And the fact that I state to sense may bring you! Don Alfonso (entering) Ferrando, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso Ferrando and Guglielmo Oh, abundantly! Bravo, bravo! That’s really splendid! No 30, Aria Nothing’s wanting, it’s enchanting! On your charms, my new-found treasure, 10 Man accuses the woman, but I excuse her Despina A reward of fine proportions I shall never tire of gazing! And my forgiveness never will refuse her. Who Despina engages, Both the parties can afford. Man’s love is a passion, a life’s anxiety, Will find she never fails to earn her wages! (While Don Alfonso sings, the musicians are tuning up) Fiordiligi and Dorabella To her the charm of love’s variety. Very soon they will be entering, In my veins I feel such pleasure, The lover who may find himself deluded, (They leave.) Please applaud them on . With its power my sense amazing.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 142-143 2/3/08 14:29:15 Ferrando and Guglielmo Lends her aid to our contriving! Of their own free will contracted; Day most unfortunate! You’re enchanting. Soon the Notary arriving And for dowry ’tis enacted. Your danger appals me. Ipso facto you shall see. Here come your lovers. Fiordiligi and Dorabella Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando and Guglielmo You’re delightful! Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando and Guglielmo None is wanted, that’s for granted. Fiordiligi and Dorabella Bravo! bravo! Let him enter. As you make it we will take it, Here come our lovers? Ferrando and Guglielmo We will sign, no more delay! Eyes bewitching. Don Alfonso Don Alfonso I will call him. This is he. (Only the two ladies sign.) Who left you sighing, Fiordiligi and Dorabella With joyful faces – And lips inviting – Despina (entering, and in nasal voice) Despina and Don Alfonso Again returning Heaven pours its blessings o’er you! Bravo, bravo, that’s the shortest way. Coming ashore. Ferrando, Guglielmo, Fiordiligi and Dorabella Ladies, here you see before you (touching the glasses with their lips) Me, the lawyer, Baccalaureo, (The document is still in Don Alfonso’s hand, when Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando and Guglielmo Touching, sipping! Sipping, touching! Bearing the important deed; the loud sound of drums and singing is heard in the How unpropitious! Which, with all its regulations, distance.) Barbarous torture, Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Ferrando Covenants and stipulations, Why so malicious? In our eyes and our embraces, By your kind permission sitting, Chorus (off-stage) What can we do? Let us banish all sorrow’s traces. Slightly coughing, nought omitting, Oh, the soldier’s life for me, (The servants remove the table and and the (The ladies drink) I will now commence to read. Ever o’er new countries ranging, musicians leave hurriedly.) Tears of sorrow are no longer now remaining, Daily scene and fortune changing, Of the past the image fades. Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo and Now on shore and now on sea. Fiordiligi and Dorabella (to their lovers) Guglielmo (aside) Don Alfonso You cannot stay here. Ah! I wish their drink were poisonous, Bravo, bravo, yes indeed! Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Despina, Ferrando Cruel, heartless, cunning jades! and Guglielmo Ferrando, Guglielmo, Despina and Don Alfonso Despina What is that? What joyful singing? If they suspect us here? Scene Seventeen By this contract here indicted Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo and Now in wedlock are united Don Alfonso Fiordiligi and Dorabella Don Alfonso; later Despina diguised as a notary Fiordiligi to Leander Wait awhile; I’ll go and see. Do not delay here! Dorabella to Philander; (He goes to the window) Don Alfonso (entering) Noble sisters of Ferrara, Misericordia! Ferrando, Guglielmo, Despina and Don Alfonso 14 Happy lovers! Fate conniving Gentlemen of South Albania, Terror enthrals me! If they detect us here.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 144-145 2/3/08 14:29:16 (Don Alfonso leads Despina to another room.) Scene Eighteen Fiordiligi and Dorabella (aside) Don Alfonso (sottovoce to the men) Fiordiligi and Dorabella; Fernando and Guglielmo Speak I dare not! My voice has deserted me. There’s the contract if you need it. Fiordiligi and Dorabella with military cloaks and hats; Despina still in the How I tremble with shame and with fear! Why not pick it up and read it? Go and conceal yourselves, adjacent room; Don Alfonso For goodness sake. (The servants bring in a trunk.) Ferrando (recovering the contract) (They lead their lovers to another room. They Ferrando and Guglielmo What’s this document I see here? re-emerge, unseen, and leave.) 15 Joy once more now our sorrow replaces, Guglielmo Now Heaven defend us! As again we behold the dear faces, Let me put my pack and sabre Guglielmo And we offer our tender embraces, In the corner for a moment. It’s a contract, yes, a contract! Don Alfonso Thus fidelity reaps its reward. (He goes out of the door through which Despina It’s a double marriage contract! Do not alarm yourselves! went and returns immediately.) Don Alfonso What the devil! A man in hiding. Ferrando and Guglielmo (to the ladies) Fiordiligi and Dorabella Powers above us! Guglielmo! Ferrando! He’s a lawyer. How bizarre! O ye gods, vain is denial, Good fortune send us! This is marvellous! Here? Why though? And For the signatures condemn you wherefore? Despina (entering hatless) Oh disgrace beyond conception! Don Alfonso It’s no lawyer here in hiding, Wicked treason and deception! But only calm yourselves… Ferrando and Guglielmo See the mystery revealing. Let us find the hateful rivals! Sudden orders decreed our returning, From a masquerade returning Let our vengeance on them fall! Fiordiligi and Dorabella (almost frantically) And the joyful intelligence learning, It’s Despina you see here! Or what the end will be, Back we hastened with eagerness burning, (aside) (They move to go into the other room but the ladies Oh who can tell? By our presence to end their alarms! Yes, it’s me and where my equal stop them.) For contrivance will you see? Don Alfonso Guglielmo (to Fiordiligi) Fiordiligi and Dorabella Ferrando and Guglielmo (aside) I’ll dare to promise you, Your complexion is pale, you are silent. Ah! My love, now let me perish, It’s Despina, now the sequel All shall go well. Hope of life no more I cherish. Very quickly we shall see! Ferrando (to Dorabella) Shame, remorse and terror fill me. Fiordiligi and Dorabella And your eye is bedewed with a tear! (Don Alfonso cunningly lets fall the contract.) With your sabre, unflinching, kill me! O’er my heart what terrors hover! Spare me not, I own it all! If the truth he now discover, Don Alfonso Fiordiligi and Dorabella (aside) Then his love for me is over, Now concealment is surely impossible. It’s Despina, it’s Despina Ferrando and Guglielmo Ah, whatever would he do? They are sad though their lovers are here! It’s a mystery to me! What is this?

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 146-147 2/3/08 14:29:16 Fiordiligi (pointing at Don Alfonso and Despina) Ferrando and Guglielmo Fiordiligi and Dorabella Ah! They can tell you! In its simplicity Ah, my love, if you’ll accept it Since through them this woe befell you! This great invention, Far more faithful than vows I’ve broken This mighty mystery, Is my penitence, believe me, Don Alfonso Was all our own. As my future life will show! It is useless to dissemble, All the proof you need is there! Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Despina Ferrando and Guglielmo Wonder on wonder! I’ll believe the word you’ve spoken, (He indicates the room which the suitors had To the proof no more I’ll go. previously entered, and Ferrando and Guglielmo Ferrando, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso go in.) They are astounded! Despina The effect of my deception Fiordiligi and Dorabella (aside) Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Despina Is beyond all comprehension Oh, with fear I faint and palpitate. Blunder on blunder! And indeed I’ve learned a lesson Why did he his friends betray? With a moral that is true. (Ferrando and Guglielmo, come out of the room Ferrando, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso Take good care if fooling others without hats, cloaks and moustaches, but in They are confounded! Someone else may well fool you. Albanian costume; they tease their lovers and Despina in a ridiculous way.) Fiordiligi and Dorabella (indicating Don Alfonso) Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Despina, Ferrando, Yet all our woes are due Guglielmo and Don Alfonso Ferrando (paying exaggerated compliments to To him alone. 16 Happy is the man who calmly Fiordiligi) Takes life strictly as he finds it. See here before you, Don Alfonso And with humour and patience only One who adores you True the plot was my invention Lets sweet reason be his guide. Your noble lover And completed my intention: Fortune’s frown can ne’er confound him; From fair Albania! I desired but to persuade them He will smile at all around him Nothing’s perfect here below! And despite each new calamity Guglielmo (to Dorabella, returning the miniature) (He makes them unite and embrace.) Happiness hath learnt to find. See here a treasure, So forgiving, be united, Guarded with pleasure, And above all else don’t discuss it. Curtain Yours in return, love, Now you all must laugh it off, Render to me. For there is nothing you can do.

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 148-149 2/3/08 14:29:17 On session: Sir Peter Moores and Sir Charles Mackerras On session: Sir Thomas Allen

CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 150-151 2/3/08 14:29:20 On session Clockwise from top left: Sir Charles Mackerras, Janice Watson, Diana Montague, Lesley Garrett, Toby Spence, Sir Thomas Allen and Christopher Maltman

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 152-153 2/3/08 14:29:30 The Opera In English Series Great Operatic Arias

CHAN 3011(2) Donizetti: Don Pasquale CHAN 3079(2) Verdi: Falstaff CHAN 3057(3) Mozart: Don Giovanni CHAN 3127 CHAN 3027(2) Donizetti: The Elixir of Love CHAN 3116(2) Verdi: A Masked Ball CHAN 3103(2) Mozart: Idomeneo CHAN 3096 CHAN 3083(2) Donizetti: Lucia of Lammermoor CHAN 3136(2) Verdi: Nabucco CHAN 3113(3) Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro CHAN 3035 Yvonne Kenny CHAN 3017(2) Donizetti: Mary Stuart CHAN 3068(2) Verdi: Otello CHAN 3121(2) Mozart: The Magic Flute CHAN 3099 Yvonne Kenny 2 CHAN 307 sings scenes from Mary CHAN 3030(2) Verdi: CHAN 3022 Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (The CHAN 3049 Della Jones Stuart CHAN 3023(2) Verdi: La traviata Knight of the Rose, highlights) CHAN 3142 Jennifer Larmore CHAN 3003 Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (The Touring CHAN 3036(2) Verdi: (The Troubadour) CHAN 3119(2) Wagner: The Flying Dutchman CHAN 3010 Diana Montague Company) CHAN 3067 A Verdi Celebration CHAN 3054(3) Wagner: The Rhinegold CHAN 3093 Diana Montague 2 CHAN 300 Mascagni: Cavalleria rusricana CHAN 3091(2) Bizet: Carmen CHAN 3038(4) Wagner: The Valkyrie CHAN 3112 Barry Banks (Rustic Chivalry) CHAN 3014(3) Gounod: Faust CHAN 3045(4) Wagner: Siegfried CHAN 3006 Bruce Ford CHAN 3005(2) Pagliacci & Cavalleria rusticana CHAN 3089(2) Gounod: Faust (abridged) CHAN 3060(5) Wagner: Twilight of the Gods CHAN 3100 Bruce Ford 2 CHAN 3008(2) : La bohème CHAN 3033(2) Massenet: Werther CHAN 3065(16) Wagner: Complete Ring Cycle CHAN 3088 Bruce Ford sings Viennese CHAN 3070(2) Puccini: Madam Butterfly CHAN 3134(2) Poulenc: The Carmelites CHAN 3133 Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle CHAN 3013 Dennis O’Neill CHAN 3000(2) Puccini: Tosca CHAN 3130(3) Berg: Lulu CHAN 3101(2) Janácˇek: The Cunning Little Vixen CHAN 3105 Dennis O’Neill 2 CHAN 3066 Jane Eaglen sings Tosca CHAN 3094(2) Berg: Wozzeck CHAN 3029(2) Janácˇek: Osud (Fate) CHAN 3085 Alan Opie CHAN 3086(2) Puccini: Turandot CHAN 3019(3) Handel: Julius Caesar CHAN 3106(2) Janácˇek: Jenu˚fa CHAN 3077 Andrew Shore CHAN 3025(2) Rossini: CHAN 3147 Handel: Acis and Galatea CHAN 3138(2) Janácˇek: The Makropulos Case CHAN 3032 Alastair Miles CHAN 3097(2) Rossini: The Thieving Magpie CHAN 3072 Janet Baker sings scenes from Julius CHAN 3145(2) Janácˇek: Katya Kabanova CHAN 3044 John Tomlinson CHAN 3074(2) Verdi: Aida Caesar CHAN 3007 Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov CHAN 3076 John Tomlinson 2 CHAN 3052(2) Verdi: (highlights) CHAN 3143(2) Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel CHAN 3118 Sir Thomas Allen CHAN 3128(2) Smetana: The Bartered Bride CHAN 3081(2) Mozart: The Abduction from the CHAN 3155 Sir Thomas Allen 2 Seraglio CHAN 3042(2) Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin CHAN 3078 Baroque Celebration

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 154-155 2/3/08 14:29:30 Also AvailableOn session: Richard Farnes and Brian Couzens Also AvailableOn session: Richard Farnes and Brian Couzens CHAN 3143 (2) CHAN 31 06(2)

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 156-157 2/3/08 14:29:32 Also AvailableOn session: Richard Farnes and Brian Couzens

Vocal and language consultant: Ludmilla Andrew Staging director: Charles Kilpatrick Music librarian: Stephen Hogger

Session photos by Bill Cooper

David Watkin/John Cohen cello Ronald Schneider fortepiano

Executive producer Brian Couzens Producer James Mallinson Sound engineer Jonathan Stokes (Classic Sound) Assistant engineer Andrew Hallifax (Classic Sound) Editor Classic Sound Mastering Jonathan Cooper Operas administrator Sue Shortridge Recording venue Watford Colosseum; 3 – 6 and 8 –11 January 2007, and 15, 17, 18 & 20 August 2007 Front Photo of Sir Charles Mackerras by Bill Cooper Back cover Session photo of Sir Charles Mackerras by Bill Cooper Design and typesetting Cassidy Rayne Creative Ltd Booklet editor Kara Reed

CHAN 313 8(2) P 2008 Chandos Records Ltd C 2008 Chandos Records Ltd

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CHAN 3152(3) Booklet.indd 158-159 2/3/08 14:29:32 SOLOISTS /OAE/ SIR CHARLES MACKERRAS CHANDOS DIGITAL CHAN 3152(3)

Printed in the EU MCPS LC 7038 DDD TT 160:34 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 –1791) Recorded in 24-bit/96kHz Così fan tutte or The School for Lovers Opera buffa in two acts Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, English version by Marmaduke Browne, adapted by John Cox : COS Fiordiligi ladies from Ferrara, Janice Watson soprano

Ì Dorabella sisters, living in Naples Diana Montague mezzo-soprano FAN TUTTE } Guglielmo, an offi cer, Fiordiligi’s lover Christopher Maltman baritone Ferrando, an offi cer, Dorabella’s lover Toby Spence tenor Despina, maidservant to Fiordiligi and Dorabella Lesley Garrett soprano Don Alfonso, an old philosopher Sir Thomas Allen baritone

Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Sir Charles Mackerras CHAN 3152(3) CHANDOS

COMPACT DISC ONE COMPACT DISC TWO COMPACT DISC THREE TT 64:43 TT 51:11 TT 44:40

p 2008 Chandos Records Ltd c 2008 Chandos Records Ltd Chandos Records Ltd • Colchester • Essex • England

CHAN 3152(3) Back Inlay.indd 1 15/2/08 23:16:47