The title Così fan tutte literally means “That’s how all women do it.“ The young officers Guglielmo and Ferrando boast to their older friend Don Alfonso about the fidelity of their lovers. Don Alfonso, however, considers all women to be unpredictable in love. The two officers agree to a bet to test their fiancées. They pretend to have been sent to the front. They return as foreign nobles, but fail to tempt their lovers into infidelity. They think they have already won the bet, but Don Alfonso considers this premature. The disguise games in Così fan tutte always seem somewhat implausible. When we watch them, we think: “No one would fall for that!” Unless, of course, the disguises represent the world in which the characters live. Perhaps the whole of Così takes place in a clown world. And if that is the case, then the question is: will the couples be able to maintain this clown world until the end?

(Source: volksoper.at)