Così fan tutte

A fancy villa in the forest or perhaps a chalet in the mountains. Two couples of colleagues in their fifties are on holiday with two of their friends. They discuss love with the confidence of maturity: banal scenes from a marriage. But to turn their words into deeds, the two friends suggest that the couples try a special kind of experiment: a role-playing game that is supposed to lead them to a better understanding of themselves. The idyllic setting closes like a trap; what they discover will change them forever. Così fan tutte – the story of an ambiguous initiation alternating wisdom and cruelty – is an obvious next project for Dmitri Tcherniakov in the wake of his Carmen (2017). After The Marriage of Figaro (2021), Thomas Hengelbrock is back with the Balthasar Neumann Orchestra and a cast ideally suited to the project. The Festival d'Aix-en-Provence was born with Così fan tutte in 1948; what work could be more appropriate to celebrate its 75th anniversary?