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Offer,Mozart: Così fan tutte, K588

Janice Watson (Fiordiligi), Diana Montague (Dorabella), Lesley Garrett (Despina), Toby Spence (Ferrando), Christopher Maltman (Guglielmo), Sir Thomas Allen (Don Alfonso); Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment & Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Sir Charles Mackerras

This is an account of Così which seems to put momentum first. The opening chord, more ferocious than one would expect, gives way to a rattling overture, and tension and pace never let up. — BBC Music Magazine, May 2008, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 31st Mar 2008
Catalogue No: CHAN3152(3)
Label: Chandos
Series: Opera in English
Length: 2 hours 40 minutes

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Mozart: Cosi fan tutte, K. 588 (Sung in English)

Work length2:40:09

$69.90

$86.45

Thomas Allen (contralto), Janice Watson (soprano), Lesley Garrett (soprano), Toby Spence (tenor), Diana Montague (mezzo-soprano), Sir Charles Mackerras, Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Age of Enlightenment Orchestra, Christopher Maltman (baritone)

Overture

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Act I: Trio: Suspect Dorabella? (Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso)

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Act I: Recitative: Swords or pistols? (Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso)

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Act I: Trio: Woman's faith is like a phoenix (Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo)

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Act I: Recitative: A poetical fiction! (Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso)

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Act I: Trio: I shall hire a band of players (Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso)

Track length2:21

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Act I: Duet: This portrait alone is the face of Adonis (Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

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Act I: Recitative: I can't think what's the matter (Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

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Act I: Recitative: Here they are (Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Don Alfonso)

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Act I: Aria: Let me try. My courage fails (Don Alfonso)

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Act I: Recitative: Tell us, for pity's sake (Fiordiligi, Don Alfonso, Dorabella)

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Act I: Quintet: Courage fails me! For no evasion (Guglielmo, Ferrando, Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

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Act I: Recitative: It's a comedy, charming! (Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

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Act I: Oh, the soldier's life for me! (Chorus)

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Act I: Recitative: My friends, the time is flying (Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo)

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Act I: Quintet: You'll write long letters often (Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Chorus)

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Act I: Recitative: Are they gone? (Dorabella, Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi)

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Act I: Trio: O wind gently blowing (Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Don Alfonso)

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Act I: Recitative: So far all's going splendidly (Don Alfonso)

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Act I: Recitative: A hell of an existence (Despina)

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Act I: Recitative: My ladies, here is your chocolate and biscuits (Despina, Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

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Act I: Aria: Cease not, remorseless love (Dorabella)

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Act I: Recitative: Signora Dorabella, Signora Fiordiligi (Despina, Dorabella, Fiordiligi)

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Act I: Aria: In lovers and in soldiers (Despina)

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Act I: Recitative: What a silence! (Don Alfonso, Despina)

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Act I: Sextet: I've the honour to present you (Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Despina, Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

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Act I: Recitative: What an outcry! (Don Alfonso, Dorabella, Fiordiligi, Ferrando, Guglielmo)

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Act I: Aria: Like a fortress in ocean founded (Fiordiligi)

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Act I: Recitative: Stay, I implore you! (Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Dorabella, Fiordiligi)

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Act I: Aria: O vision so charming (Guglielmo)

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Act I: Trio: You seem delighted! (Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo)

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Act I: Recitative: When you've quite finished laughing (Don Alfonso, Guglielmo, Ferrando)

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Act I: Aria: Her eye so alluring (Ferrando)

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Act I: Finale: Why has fate my life enshrouded (Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

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Act I: Finale: To die is all I long for (Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Despina)

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Act I: Finale: Now ladies, calm yourselves (Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Despina, Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

Track length8:59

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Act II: Recitative: Well, I declare, you are a funny pair of ladies (Despina, Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

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Act II: Aria: At fifteen a girl already must be truly wise (Despina)

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Act II: Recitative: Well, sister! What do you think? (Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

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Act II: Duet: I prefer the gentle dark one (Dorabella, Fiordiligi)

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Act II: Recitative: Come at once to the garden (Don Alfonso, Dorabella)

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Act II: Duet and Chorus: Gentle zephyr, softly sighing (Ferrando, Guglielmo, Chorus)

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Act II: Recitative: What is this masquerading? (Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Despina, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso)

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Act II: Quartet: Now give me your hand (Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Despina)

Track length2:33

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Act II: Recitative: Isn't the weather lovely! (Fiordiligi, Ferrando, Dorabella, Guglielmo)

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Act II: Duet: This heart that I give you (Guglielmo, Dorabella)

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Act II: Recitative: Cruel one, would you leave me? (Ferrando, Fiordiligi)

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Act II: Recitative: He's leaving. Listen! … (Fiordiligi)

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Act II: Rondo: Ah, my love, I pray forgive me (Fiordiligi)

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Act II: We've done it! (Ferrando, Guglielmo)

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Act II: Aria: Ladies have such variations (Guglielmo)

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Act II: Recitative: Ah! My brain is distracted! (Ferrando)

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Act II: Cavatina: Her treason is poison (Ferrando)

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Act II: Recitative: Now at least you are acting as a sane woman should (Despina, Dorabella, Fiordiligi)

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Act II: Aria: Young love is unrelenting (Dorabella)

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Act II: Recitative: All the world is conspiring (Fiordiligi, Guglielmo, Despina, Don Alfonso)

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Act II: Duet: All too slowly the hours are fleeting (Fiordiligi, Ferrando)

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Act II: Recitative: That's enough for me! (Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Ferrando)

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Act II: Aria: Man accuses the woman (Don Alfonso, Ferrando, Guglielmo)

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Act II: Recitative: Well, gentlemen, you've won them (Despina, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso)

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Act II: Finale: Come, my friends, no more delaying (Despina, Chorus, Don Alfonso)

Track length1:47

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Act II: Finale: May the love, that has united them (Chorus, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Fiordiligi, Dorabella)

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Act II: Finale: Happy lovers! Fate conniving (Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Despina, Chorus)

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Act II: Finale: Joy once more now our sorrow replaces (Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Despina)

Track length8:11

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Act II: Finale: Happy is the man who calmly takes life strictly as he finds it (Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Despina, Ferrando, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso)

Track length1:44

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About
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About

Così fan tutte is Mozart’s third opera to a Da Ponte libretto. It is in opera buffa style and has only six characters, two couples and an elderly philosopher and a trusted maid. In this recording Lesley Garrett sings the part of the maid, Despina, and the celebrated veteran Sir Thomas Allen the philosopher, Don Alfonso. Despite the somewhat cynical storyline this opera contains some of Mozart’s most memorable and sublime music.

The conductor, Sir Charles Mackerras, has spent many years researching performance practice of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is a noted authority on Mozart’s operas. He writes of this recording, ‘it is indeed a

pleasure having the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment lending its expertise in tonal colour, phrasing and rhythmic impulse to Mozart’s wonderful score… I have chosen to record this English version of Così fan tutte with

the traditional cuts, thus making it closer to a staged performance’. The English translation, by the Rev. Browne, was first used in London at a performance conducted by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford in 1890.

Reviews

May 2008

This is an account of Così which seems to put momentum first. The opening chord, more ferocious than one would expect, gives way to a rattling overture, and tension and pace never let up.

2010

Sir Peter Moores comments that the phrase 'Così fan tutte' is 'almost impossible to translate' into English. Thus it is that the delivery of Ferrando and Guglielmo's pronouncement, under the cynical tutorship of Don Alfonso, is one of the few lines that have not been translated in this volume of the Opera in English series (Alfonso's exclamation 'Misericordia!' is the other one left intact, and rightly so). Sometimes opera in English sounds too close to Gilbert and Sullivan at their cheesiest, but in a sparkling comedy such as Così fan tutte that is not necessarily a bad thing: in fact this is tremendously enjoyable because it allows Anglophones to concentrate on exactly what the characters are saying. So if Opera in English brings a wider audience closer to the heart of Mozart's and da Ponte's masterpiece, then it can only be a wonderful thing.
Of course, it helps that the music has seldom sounded as glorious as it does in the hands of Sir Charles Mackerras and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Both are consummate Mozartians, and the pacing, ebb and flow of the music is near-perfect. In particular, the OAE's woodwind are on ravishing form. In terms of stylishness, orchestral sound and the sentimen- tal strength of the playing, this Così is on a par with the finest period-instrument versions (Östman and Gardiner), and arguably has more heart than the OAE's previous recording under Sir Simon Rattle (EMI). The three ladies are animated (but not consistently pleasing on the ear), so the three men steal the show vocally: Sir Thomas Allen is, of course, a renowned Don Alfonso of authority and warmth, Christopher Maltman is a suave Guglielmo, and Toby Spence delivers some of the best Mozart tenorsinging in a long time. Although he falls short in softer music, he brings ringing clarity and declamatory emotion to “Tradito! Schernito!” (here “Her ter-reason is poison”).

September 2008

…the pacing, ebb and flow of the music is near-perfect. In particular, the OAE's woodwind are on ravishing form. Sir Thomas Allen is, a renowned Don Alfonso of authority and warmth… Toby Spence delivers some of the best Mozart tenor-singing I have heard in a long time.

2010

Mackerras's sparkling account of this delightful opera comes over surprisingly well in English, for the change of language does not impair the vocal lines...Vocally, Toby Spence, as an attractively ardent Ferrando, is the star of the show, and Christopher Maltman partners him well as Guglielmo.

4th May 2008

M is for Mozart, Mackerras and magic. The Australian conductor - surely the world’s most illuminating and rewarding Mozartian - conjures sounds of mercurial brilliance and heart-stopping beauty from the OAE and his all-British cast in this vernacular version of Mozart’s most enigmatic comedy.

3rd May 2008

Charles Mackerras, always a rewarding Mozart conductor, directs a taut, urgent account of the opera. Recitatives tumble inevitably into arias. Yet, despite his penchant for mobile tempos, Mackerras is fully alive to Così 's uniquely voluptuous, nostalgic tinta.
Crucially in an opera of ensembles, the cast works well as a close-knit team, whether in the concerted numbers or in the recitatives, taken at a natural, conversational pace.

12th April 2008

This recording lacks an underlying dramatic conviction, despite punchy playing from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Mackerras.
It's a shame, because Toby Spence, Christopher Maltman, Janice Watson and Diana Montague are nicely matched fair-weather lovers. But the direction seems moot. Lesley Garrett's devilsome maid Despina hams too much to the absent crowd, tonally rather too music-hall for the rest of the recording.

Offer,Mozart: Così fan tutte, K588

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