1 (return)
[ N. Berl. Mus. Ztg., 1856, No. 5, p. 35.]

2 (return)
[ N. Wien. Mus. Ztg., 1852, No. 35.]

3 (return)
[ Wien. Ztg., 1788, October 15, No. 83, p. 2,541.]

4 (return)
[ From August 29, when "Figaro" was first placed on the stage, it was given eleven times (August 31; September 2, 11, 19; October 3, 9, 24; November 5, 13, 27); fifteen times in 1790, and three times in 1791.]

5 (return)
[ Fr. Heinse (Reise-und Lebensskizzen, I., p. 184) mentions a rumour that a story current in Vienna at the time concerning two officers and their mistresses furnished the subject for the opera, which was adopted by the express desire of the Emperor.]

6 (return)
[ Da Ponte mentions it only briefly (Mem., II., p. 109).]

7 (return)
[ In the Wien. Ztg., 1790, No. 9, Anh., the date is printed, "Mittwoch, 16 Januar."]

8 (return)
[ Joum. des Luxus u. d. Moden, 1790, p. 148: "I have again to announce a new and excellent work by Mozart acquired by our theatre. It was performed yesterday for the first time at the Imp. Nat. Theatre. It is entitled,'Cosi fan Tutte, osia la Scuola degli Amanti.' Of the music, it is sufficient to say that it is by Mozart."]

9 (return)
[ It was repeated after the first performance, on January 28,30; February 7, 11. After the death of Joseph II. (February 20) the theatre was closed until April 12; Mozart's opera was given again June 6, 12; July 6, 16; Aug. 17; in all, therefore, ten times; then it was allowed to drop.]

10 (return)
[ The first book of the words, "Cosi fan Tutte, osia la Scuola degli Amanti. Dramma giocoso in due atti, da rappresentarsi nel Teatro di Corte l' anno 1790," was shown to me by Sonnleithner.]

11 (return)
[ In the original recitative (Act I., sc. 9), Trieste was written, and altered into Naples; Venezia is in the printed score.]

12 (return)
[ The words with which Don Alfonso begins the second terzet— "È la fede delle femine Come l' Araba fenice: Che vi sia, ciascun lo dice Dove sia, nessun lo sÀ"—are borrowed from Metastasio's "Demetrio" (Act II., sc. 3), and were composed by himself as a canon (where it runs, "La fede degli amanti, &c.). It is therefore an old familiar song that Alfonso sings to them.]

13 (return)
[ According to the original score the march is first played by the orchestra alone, piano at the beginning, and crescendo from the second part; at the repetition the chorus joins in forte.]

14 (return)
[ This scene was originally introduced by a Cavatina for Despina; after the recitative is written, Dopo la cavatina di' Despina. Mozart afterwards crossed out these words, probably because a better place was found for Despina's air.]

15 (return)
[ Schneider, Gesch. d. Oper, p. 61.]

16 (return)
[ Schneider, Ibid., p. 76.]

17 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XXVIII., p. 26. Berl. Mus. Ztg., III., p. 12.]

18 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XXXIII., p. 550.]

19 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XLVIII., p. 870.]

20 (return)
[ A. M. Z., X., p. 409.]

21 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XXV., p. 428.]

22 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XXXIII., p. 222.]

23 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XL., p. 440.]

24 (return)
[ A. M. Z., VII., p. 240.]

25 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XXXII., p. 375. Fr. Heinse, Reise-und Lebensskizzen, I., p. 183.]

26 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XIV., p. 189. Cf. XVI., p. 154.]

27 (return)
[ A.M.Z., XII., p. 500; XVI., p. 451.]

28 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XVIII., p. 895.]

29 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XIII., pp. 526, 720; XIX., p. 550; XXII., p. 813.]

30 (return)
[ Pohl, Mozart u. Haydn in London, p. 146. Parke, Mus. Mem., II., p. 259.]

31 (return)
[ A. M. Z., XLIV., p. 750.]

32 (return)
[ The autograph score is arranged and written quite in Mozart's usual manner. The recitative of the scena (XI. and XII.), [the duet (29), completed by a strange hand, exists in Mozart's manuscript], the serenade (21), the accompanied recitative for Fiordiligi before the air (25), and the whole of scena (XIII.) of the second act, besides some extra sheets for the wind instruments, are wanting.]

33 (return)
[ B. A. Weber declared after the performance in Berlin (Mus. Monatsschr., 1792, p. 137): "After the 'Marriage of Figaro,' this opera is indisputably the finest. The concerted pieces more especially have a beauty and an expression which can be rather felt than described."]

34 (return)
[ Journ. d. Mod., 1792, p. 504: "The opera in question is the most absurd stuff in the world, and only sought after on account of the excellence of the music."]

35 (return)
[ In a Musikalischer Briefwechsel (Berlin Mus. Ztg., 1805, p. 293) the opera, both words and music, are severely criticised by "Arithmos," who is then in his turn ridiculed as a Philistine by "Phantasus," and the opera praised as a model of genuine irony. E. T. A. Hoffmann, too, who places the essence of comic opera in the fantastical, considers that the much-abused text of "Cosi fan Tutte' is genuinely operatic (SerapionsbrÜder, I., 2, 1, Ges. Schr., I., p. 120).]

36 (return)
[ Cf. A. von Wolzogen, Deutsche Mus. Ztg., 1861, p. 137.]

37 (return)
[ In this form the opera was performed in Berlin, and again in 1822 at Braunschweig (A. M. Z., XXIV., p. 378), in 1823 at Cassel (A. M. Z., XXV., p. 450), and in 1824 at Munich (A. M. Z., XXVI., p. 588).]

38 (return)
[ Morgenblatt, 1856, No. 4, p. 75.]

39 (return)
[ This has occasioned the displacement of some of the songs, not always to their disadvantage. This version is not only far superior to all that preceded it, but is excellent in itself by reason of its taste and cleverness and careful regard for musical requirements.]

40 (return)
[ A Danish translation by OehlenschlÄger, with which I am not acquainted, appears to have altogether transformed the plot (OehlenschlÄger, Lebenserin-nerungen, I., p. 121; IV., p. 43).]

41 (return)
[ Hogarth, Mem. of the Opera, II., p. 188.]

42 (return)
[ These pseudo improvements have been adopted at the more recent performances of the opera at Leipzig, Dresden, Munich, Vienna, and even at Karlsruhe,by Ed. Devrient (1860).]

43 (return)
[ In the second act there are six airs, four duets, the so-called quartet and Alfonso's short scena; in the first there are six airs, two duets, five terzets, and one quintet, besides a sestet and the great scena with the chorus.]

44 (return)
[ "Oh, how inexpressibly I prize and honour Mozart," says Richard Wagner (Oper u. Drama, I., p. 54), "in that he found it impossible to write the same kind of music for 'Titus' as for 'Don Juan,' for 'Cosi fan Tutte' as for 'Figaro' I How music would have been debased thereby! A sprightly, frivolous poet handed him his airs, duets, and ensembles to compose, and according to the warmth with which they inspired him, he set them to the music which would endow them with the fullest amount of expression that they were capable of." Hotho (Vorstudien f. Leben und Kunst, p. 76) is of opinion that in "Cosi fan Tutte" the female parts are thrown into the shade by the male, while the contrary is the case in "Figaro" and "Don Giovanni," and accounts for this fact by saying that Mozart was always attracted by that side of his subject which was mostly suggestive of melody.]

45 (return)
[ It is advertised in the Wien. Ztg., 1790, No. 16, Anh., as the most beautiful duet of the new opera.]

46 (return)
[ Da Ponte, Mem., II., pp. 108,117.]

47 (return)
[ Parke, Mus. Mem., I., p. 48.]

48 (return)
[ The first part was originally given to Dorabella, the second to Fiordiligi, as far as the first finale; this was afterwards altered by Mozart. It can only have arisen from an exchange of names, for that the first part was always intended for Ferraresi is clear from the manner in which the low notes are made use of, evidently to suit her voice.]

49 (return)
[ It is suggestive for the execution that lietissimo is the direction at the beginning of the voice part.]

50 (return)
[ An excellent effect is given by the alternations of the keys of E flat major and C major in the second theme, and the interchange of clarinets and oboes connected therewith.]

51 (return)
[ The tenor, Vincenzo Calvesi, who made his first appearance with his wife in April, 1785 (Wien. Ztg., 1785, No. 33, Anh.), is the same for whom, in 1785, the inserted piece, "Villanella rapita," was written (Vol. II., p. 331), and who, in 1786, took the part of one Antipholus in Storace's "Gli Equivoci," while Kelly took the other (Kelly, Reminisc., I., p. 237).]

52 (return)
[ Bassi distinguished himself subsequently in Dresden in the part of Guillelmo (A. M. Z., X., p. 410; XIII., p. 730; XIX., p. 649).]

53 (return)
[ Here again an alteration must have been made. The preceding recitative ended originally after Ferrando's words, "Dammi consiglio!" in C minor, whereupon the direction follows: Segue Varia di Guillelmo. Afterwards the two last bars were crossed out, and the recitative was continued on another sheet, as it is now printed, with the same direction at the end.]

54 (return)
[ The repetition by the wind instruments of the passage of such irresistibly comic gravity—[See Page Image] is wanting in the original score, and is written by the hand of a copyist on a separate sheet for flutes and bassoons only; nor do the references appear to me to be by Mozart. The insertion, however, was unquestionably in accordance with his intentions.]

55 (return)
[ In both versions, Guillelmo's air breaks off on the chord of the seventh, and is immediately followed by the terzet. At the beginning of the latter is written ridono moderatamente (not fortissimo).]

56 (return)
[ Rochlitz, A. M. Z., III., p. 592.]

57 (return)
[ This appears to be a later alteration. The preceding recitative ended originally at—[See Page Image] and the direction followed Segue V aria di Don Alfonso; the d was crossed out, and attacca written against it. Even if Mozart did not look upon the ensemble as a regular quartet, he could scarcely have denominated it "Aria di Don Alfonso"; such an aria must therefore have been projected, and afterwards changed for the ensemble.]

58 (return)
[ Rochlitz, A. M. Z., III., p. 593. Cf. Ambros, Culturhistor. Bilder., p. 191.]

59 (return)
[ One can hardly credit Schroder's remark, on seeing the opera, rechristened by Stegmann "Liebe und Versuchung," May 1, 1791, at Frankfort: "Wretched! Even Mozart's music is only good in the second act." (Meyer, L. Schroder, II., i., p. 68.)]

60 (return)
[ The minor key is employed only in Don Alfonso's caricatured air (5) in the poisoning scene of the second movement of the first finale, and very cursorily in Ferrando's air (27).]

61 (return)
[ The change of key, simple though it is, is more marked than in the first finale of "Figaro " and "Don Juan." G minor follows D major, then E flat major, C minor, G major, then immediately B flat major, and again without transition D major.]

62 (return)
[ The canon was originally more spun out, and Guillelmo, having vented his wrath in parlando, was to take up the theme against Dorabella; but Mozart rightly gave up the idea, and struck out the bars he had already written.]

63 (return)
[ Cf. Gugler, Morgenblatt, 1856, No. 4, p. Si.]