MOZART: Cosi fan tutte

One of the trio of operas that Mozart wrote with da Ponte, Così fan tutte (Women are Like That) casts a jaundiced eye on love — except that it includes some of Mozart's most romantic music. Faced with irony layered on irony, the audience is left not knowing whether the quartet of lovers and their Machiavellian puppet master have fooled each or themselves, or simply performed a knowing charade. Only Mozart could be so skeptical and wry without being cold; only he could debunk love and celebrate it in the same phrase.