Cosi fan tutte is widely regarded as Mozart's most enigmatic opera with Lorenzo Da Ponte's most erudite text. Edmund Goehring presents a new perspective on the relationships between text and tone in the opera, the tension between comedy and philosophy as well as its representation in stage works, and the pastoral mode. Goehring's argument is sustained by the detailed analysis of primary sources (many of which are little known), and is richly illustrated with musical examples.
Author(s): Edmund J. Goehring
Series: Cambridge Studies in Opera
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 320
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 2
Series-title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Dedication......Page 9
Contents......Page 11
Tables......Page 13
Preface......Page 15
Acknowledgments......Page 17
A note on translations......Page 18
Nineteenth-century roots to modern thought......Page 21
Così fan tutte and postmodern poetics......Page 35
The reception of Così fan tutte in the eighteenth century......Page 40
The recitative......Page 48
The overture and "Tutti accusan le donne"......Page 62
2 The philosophical mode......Page 73
Don Alfonso as old man and poet......Page 74
Don Alfonso as cynic......Page 80
The philosopher as comic character......Page 85
The comic philosopher as an operatic type......Page 95
Paisiello’s Il Socrate immaginario......Page 100
Don Alfonso as philosopher......Page 107
Materialism and Mesmerism in Così fan tutte......Page 108
Don Alfonso and popular wisdom......Page 114
The moral tale in Così fan tutte......Page 118
Don Alfonso's musical identity......Page 127
Don Alfonso’s ottava......Page 133
3 The pastoral mode......Page 142
"In uomini, in soldati"......Page 144
"Una donna a quindici anni"......Page 150
The theory and practice of the pastoral mode......Page 158
Eros and episode in the pastoral......Page 159
The sentimentalization of the pastoral in the eighteenth century......Page 164
Despina and the pastoral mode......Page 168
Despina's Epicureanism......Page 172
The uses of pity in the pastoral and in Così fan tutte......Page 176
“Smanie implacabili”......Page 191
“È amore un ladroncello”......Page 197
The limits of the pastoral in così fan tutte......Page 204
Beauty and transcendence in "Soave sia il vento"......Page 205
“Soave sia il vento“ revisited: of beauty and contingency......Page 210
Introduction: Don Alfonso as comedian......Page 217
Una cosa rara and sentimental heroism......Page 223
The origins and language of sentimental comedy......Page 228
Heroic and martial images of love in the soldiers......Page 237
“Come scoglio”......Page 244
“Per pietà”......Page 253
“Il core vi dono”......Page 262
“Fra gli amplessi”......Page 266
Ferrando‘s second-act scena......Page 279
The comic vision of Così fan tutte......Page 285
Epilogue......Page 294
Bibliography......Page 301
Index......Page 312
