W. A. Mozart: Così fan tutte

Bruce Alan Brown offers several paths towards a closer understanding of Così fan tutte.

Bruce Alan Brown (Author)

9780521437356, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 November 1995

224 pages, 8 b/w illus. 57 music examples
21.8 x 15.8 x 1.6 cm, 0.29 kg

'... there is more than enough valuable material in this book to make its acquisition thoroughly worth your while.' Opera

At once the most light-hearted and most disturbing of Mozart and Da Ponte's Italian comic operas, Così fan tutte has provoked widely differing reactions from listeners for more than two centuries. Bruce Alan Brown offers several paths towards a closer understanding of the work, providing a detailed account of the libretto's complex origins in myth, Italian literary classics, and contemporary theatre. The handbook also includes a discussion of the social and philosophical issues raised in Così and a chapter devoted to the opera's genesis reveals surprising new information on the role played by Mozart's rival Salieri. It contains a full synopsis, performance history, illustrations from key productions, and a bibliography.

List of illustrations
General preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Genesis
3. Synopsis 4. The sources of an 'original' libretto
5. Così fan tutte, or 'La Partie carrée: the eighteenth-century context of a theatrical subject
6. The musical dramaturgy of the opera
7. Performance and criticism
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Opera [AVGC9]