Dramma giocoso in 2 acts
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
World premiere January 20 1790, Burgtheatre, Vienna
This production first seen September 21 2025
Sung in Italian with German & English surtitles
an introductory talk starts in the Holzfoyer 30 mins before performances begin, is available here and everywhere podcasts can be found
Conductor Takeshi Moriuchi / Alden Gatt
Fiordiligi Karolina Bengtsson
Dorabella Kelsey Lauritano / Karolina Makuła
Guglielmo Taehan Kim / Finn Sagal°
Ferrando Matteo Ivan Rašić / Andrew Kim
Despina Elizabeth Reiter / Bianca Tognocchi
Don Alfonso Sebastian Geyer / Liviu Holender
°Member of the Opera Studio
Two engaged to be married couples’ lives are thrown out of kilter in a day.
Guglielmo and Ferrando are sure of their fiancées’, the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, fidelity. Don Alfonso, acquainted with both men, dubious about female constancy, wagers: he can prove the girls can’t stay faithful for twenty-four hours. Provided both men adhere strictly to Alfonso’s rules. Guglielmo and Ferrando are convinced they’ll win the bet.
Fiordiligi and Dorabella are waiting for their fiancés. Don Alfonso bursts in saying Guglielmo and Ferrando have just been conscripted to fight in a war. The men take their leave from their beloveds. The sisters are distraught. Despina, their maid, pokes fun at them and advises them to find new lovers. Don Alfonso, in exchange for money, makes Despina his accomplice, letting her in – to a degree – on his plan: She helps introduce the disguised men to her mistresses, without their being recognised. The sisters are outraged and want to get rid of the pushy »strangers« at once, but Don Alfonso greets them as old friends, who should be welcomed. Guglielmo and Ferrando’s first attempts to seduce the women fail. Both men are triumphant, but the bet’s deadline is hours away. Further attempts are made: Guglielmo and Ferrando pretend, heartbroken, they’ve taken poison, making the sisters feel sorry for them. Despina, disguised as a doctor, administers to the apparently dead men. They slowly come to, demanding kisses to help them recover. Fiordiligi and Dorabella are horrified. They refuse, and flee.
Act 2 Despina gives her mistresses advice on how to handle men. They allow themselves be talked into a rendezvous with the »strangers« and take their pick. Swapping, without realising it, their original partners. Don Alfonso and Despina manoeuvre the re-shuffled couples. Guglielmo manages to win Dorabella’s heart. Fiordiligi’s steadfast, but wavering. Ferrando’s gutted when he hears about Guglielmo’s success, who grumbles about all women being unfaithful, with he and his bride being the exception to all rules. Fiordiligi sees only one way to stop falling in love. By joining her fiancé at war dressed as a soldier. But Ferrando pleads with her again and she succumbs. Now Guglielmo’s devastated too, Ferrando mocks him. They decide to punish their fiancées. Don Alfonso consoles them: All women are like that, and if Ferrando and Guglielmo love them, they should marry them. Despina and Don Alfonso organise a sham double-wedding. Fiordiligi and Dorabella have decided to say »I do« to their new paramours. Despina, disguised as a notary, gets the sisters to sign marriage contracts. Don Alfonso concludes the game: the unexpected return of their original fiancés is announced. The bogus notary’s found along with the signed marriage contracts. Guglielmo and Ferrando remove their disguises, revealing the sisters’ newly-wedded husbands’ true identities. Guglielmo and Ferrando furiously accuse the sisters of the infidelity, they feel guilty of causing. Don Alfonso announces that he staged it all to teach them a lesson. The couples are reconciled and realise they’ve learnt a lot for life from his experiment.
All six draw the conclusion: »Happy is he who always looks on the bright side. Who, despite life’s ups and downs, is still guided by good sense!«
The lives of two on the brink of tying the knot couples are thrown into confusion. Guglielmo and Ferrando make a bet with their friend Don Alfonso about whether or not Fiordiligi and Dorabella are faithful. Don Alfonso’s sure that with Despina, their maid’s help he can prove they’re not. The young men are disguised as strangers to try and seduce each other’s girlfriends. Pretend and real emotions get tangled up. Towards the end the »wrong« couples celebrate a sham double wedding, before the sisters discover the true identity of their husbands. All six draw seemingly happy and conciliatory conclusions, but laughter sticks in their throats. Can things return to how they were? Which feelings were, and are, real anyway?
After Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte give us six disparate characters in their last joint work. At times critical, concerned and sympathetic they accompany them through an »amusing« plot which opens up all kinds of emotional abysses. Mariame Clément staged it like a test run for a wedding, with a moving set which makes intimations of the future, past, fantasies, crossroads, memories and doubts tangible.
