Così fan tutte

Two couples, an obscure call to the army and a dubious string-puller are the ingredients of this cheerful drama. Ferrando and Guglielmo, both in love and freshly engaged, separate from their partners Fiordiligi and Dorabella to go to war. Because they (apparently) die in battle, the women are left behind with their grief, and find their way back to life in very different ways. Or was it all a ploy by the men in the end?

Kirill Serebrennikov’s production dissects the states of mind of the two women—how they deal with grief and physical desire—making Mozart's masterpiece more sensual to experience than ever. The feminine “tutte” in the title, translating as, “this is how all women do it,” becomes a motif that combines the complexities of attraction, grief, fidelity and sex of a modern relationship with Mozart's music. The work does not condemn any of the characters, allowing viewers a deep look into the hearts of four lovers.

The production by Russian director Serebrennikov was created in 2018 at the Zurich Opera House, staged via video transmissions (due to his house arrest in Moscow at the time) and with the help of his long-time collaborators. For the Komische Oper Berlin, Così fan tutte marks the beginning of a Da Ponte trilogy—the three operas Mozart wrote with his outstanding librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte: Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.

By the way
After American Lulu and The Barber of Seville, Così fan tutte is director Kirill Serebrennikov’s third work at the Komische Oper Berlin.