Così fan tutte
The Usher Hall
Edinburgh International Festival
August 10, 2024
Così fan tutte in Edinburgh
A test of fidelity leads to deception, seduction and surprises in Mozart’s collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte.
This satirical fable about love and trust unfolds in 18th-century Naples, with a cast of unruly characters who interrogate the absurd logic of desire. A weekend’s worth of romantic entanglements and false identities ensue as the maverick Don Alfonso seeks to prove his unstable hypothesis that women cannot be trusted.
Swinging between wit and sincerity, Così fan tutte was Mozart’s third and final collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. The score is one of the composer’s most varied, with iconic ensemble numbers – one of which involves a doctor with magnetic healing powers – contrasting with heartfelt arias such as ‘Un aura amorosa’ and ‘Per pietà’.
After last year's acclaimed The Magic Flute, The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, along with their Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, further their exploration of Mozart's operas. In this remarkable rendition of one of Mozart’s most varied scores, a remarkable cast of singers join the SCO and Chorus, including the ‘hauntingly mesmerising’ (The Scotsman) Golda Schultz.