The premiere of Così fan tutte on 16 June 2024 completes the circle of new productions of the three works – Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte – that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte created together. The opera, which premiered in Vienna in 1790 and centres on the bet between two young men for the fidelity of their partners, is Barrie Kosky’s fourth directorial work at the Haus am Ring – he is staging this work for the first time. As with the two previous new productions in the cycle, the musical director is Philippe Jordan, who is also conducting the opera for the first time at the Wiener Staatsoper.

A lively, Mozart-experienced ensemble can be experienced on stage: Emily D’Angelo (Dorabella) and Filipe Manu (Ferrando) are making their house debuts; Federica Lombardi and Christopher Maltman can be seen for the first time at the Wiener Staatsoper as Fiordiligi and Don Alfonso respectively. Kate Lindsey as Despina and Peter Kellner as Guglielmo make their international, personal role debuts.

TO THE LEADING TEAM

Philippe Jordan conducts Così fan tutte for the first time at the Wiener Staatsoper. He says of the work: ‘Musically, Così fan tutte is the most beautiful work for me, it is the essence of the previous operas, in which everything that was achieved in Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro is distilled once again, condensed and brought to its purest form. I would almost speak of musical economy, everything is reduced to the essentials: Not a note too many, the orchestration is extremely economical and offers only the bare essentials in the best sense. This mature work, which allows us to experience incredible compositional perfection, leads us into Mozart’s late style. At the same time, Così fan tutte – and you can see this clearly in the second act – already points far into the Romantic period and takes a completely new direction.”

He sees the work – a dramma giocoso, like Don Giovanni – as ‘a comedy. And every good comedy also has deep seriousness and darkness, shadows. Così fan tutte is also a black comedy, just as Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro ultimately are. Only in this case, the laughter gets stuck in your throat at some point.”

Director Barrie Kosky had already staged Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro before the two operas came to the Wiener Staatsoper in his interpretation. Così fan tutte, on the other hand, he is working on for the first time: ‘I waited thirty-five years before I dared to do Così fan tutte. Not because I didn’t want to. I didn’t think I was ready yet. I think you need a lot of experience to bring this piece to the stage. And even then it’s difficult. The narrative structure is very clear and simple. It’s about collisions that occur between a group of different people. But putting these constellations together is like a delicate puzzle that can only be put together through very precise work,’ says Kosky.

He sets the action in the context of a theatre rehearsal room in which Don Alfonso works as a director with singers: ‘What would be a setting in which you can play with what is real emotion and what is acted emotion; what it means to take on a role, a costume or an attitude to love? In what kind of space can you start and stop the emotion on command, enter and exit it and even comment on it? What kind of world would that be? At some point I realised: it’s the rehearsal room.” The two main couples deliberately take part in a theatre experiment: ‘This allows us to create a situation that leads to the core of the tacheles, which is what the whole play is about: Can you “fake” emotions? Can I convince you that I love you – through the way I express myself? And what happens when a revelation suddenly occurs in the course of an artificial, invented game?”

Gianluca Falaschi is the stage and costume designer for the production and is working at the Wiener Staatsoper for the first time, while Franck Evin is once again responsible for the lighting design.

STANDING ON THE STAGE

Federica Lombardi can be seen in the role of Dorabella. The Italian singer is one of the most sought-after sopranos of her generation, especially for the great Mozart roles. At the Wiener Staatsoper she has sung Donna Elvira and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Amelia (Simon Boccanegra), Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito) and most recently the Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) with great success. She is singing Fiordiligi for the first time at the Wiener Staatsoper. Così fan tutte is also her first premiere production at the Haus am Ring, before the title role in Bellini’s Norma will follow next season.

Emily D’Angelo sings Dorabella, making her house debut at the Wiener Staatsoper. Engagements have taken the multiple competition winner to the Canadian Opera Company, the Opera Theatre Saint-Louis and the Glimmerglass Festival, among others. Most recently, the Canadian mezzo-soprano appeared on stage as Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) in Berlin, as Dorabella (Così fan tutte) in Toronto and at the Santa Fe Opera and as Annio (La clemenza di Tito) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Ensemble member Peter Kellner plays Guglielmo, making his international debut in this role. He made his debut at Haus am Ring in 2018 as Panthée in Berlioz’ Les Troyens. Since then, he has appeared here in a wide range of repertoire, including as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Colline in La bohème and, above all, as Leporello and Figaro in the premiere productions of Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro.

Another house debutant is the New Zealand-Tongan tenor Filipe Manu, who introduces himself to the Staatsoper audience as Ferrando. He is a graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at London’s Royal Opera House and has sung roles such as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Ruodi (Guillaume Tell), Arbace (Idomeneo), Tebaldo (I Capuletti e i Montecchi), Froh (Das Rheingold) and Gaston (La traviata) as a member of the ensemble at the Konzert Theater Bern. Future engagements will take him to the Royal Opera House, the Hamburg State Opera, Glyndebourne and Paris, among others.

Kate Lindsey can be heard as Despina, making her personal role debut in this role. After her debut as the composer (Ariadne auf Naxos), the mezzo-soprano also quickly became an audience favourite at the Wiener Staatsoper, where she also sang Nerone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Penelope (Il ritorno delle Poppea) and Nerone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Penelope (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria), Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), the title role in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Orlando and, most recently, Miranda in The Tempest.

In addition to the great Mozart roles, Christopher Maltman also focusses on the Verdi and Wagner repertoire. The internationally active baritone has previously sung the title roles of Eugene Onegin and Rigoletto, Prospero (The Tempest), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Ford (Falstaff), Mandryka (Arabella) and most recently Leporello (Don Giovanni) at the Wiener Staatsoper and will now take on Don Alfonso for the first time.

‘COSÌ FAN TUTTE’ IN LIVESTREAM, TV AND ON THE RADIO

The performance of Così fan tutte on Saturday, 22 June 2024 will be broadcast live from 6.30 pm on Radio Ö1 and on the Wiener Staatsoper streaming platform play.wiener-staatsoper.at (free, registration required).

On 8 September 2024, this production can be experienced as part of ‘Erlebnis Bühne’ in the ORF III main evening programme (8.15 pm).

INTRODUCTORY MATINEE TO THE PREMIERE

The introductory matinee to Così fan tutte from 9 June 2024, hosted by State Opera Director Bogdan Roščić, will soon be available on the Youtube channel of the Wiener Staatsoper. As part of this event, the new production was presented by participants – Philippe Jordan, Barrie Kosky, Federica Lombardi, Kate Lindsey, Emily D’Angelo, Filipe Manu and Christopher Maltman – as well as the literary scholar and libretto researcher Alfred Noe in discussions and with musical contributions.