Cosi fan tutte, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's bawdy 1790 dramma giocoso, recounts the randy tale of Ferrando and Guglielmo, two officers, stationed in Naples, who attempt to exchange fiancées in a wager. Fairly conventional for its time, Cosi failed to raise any eighteenth century eyebrows but (with its lasciviousness) became something of an ire-engendering piece in the more-conservative centuries to come. Jean-Pierre Ponnelle staged a production of Cosi at a Palladian villa in 1988, featuring musical accompaniment by the Nikolaus Harnoncourt-conducted Wiener Philharmoniker and the Wiener Staatsopernchor; a film of that production is now available in the home release, Cosi fan tutte. Luis Lima appears as Ferrando, Ferruccio Furlanetto as Guglielmo, Delores Ziegler as Dorabella and Edita Gruberova as Fiordiligi.
by Nathan Southern
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