After The Marriage of Figaro (1786) and Don Giovanni (1787), Così fan tutte (1790) is the third collaboration between Mozart and the poet Lorenzo da Ponte, his librettist. Themes of infidelity and feminine frivolity make their appearance from the first motif, which reappears at the end of the second act accompanied by the titular words: così fan tutte, "all women are like that." Convinced of the fickleness of women, aging cynical philosopher Don Alfonso plants the seeds of doubt in soldiers Ferrando and Guglielmo, making them mistrust their fiancées, sisters Dorabella and Fiordiligi.
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