Infectious Verve

Librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte took the title from words he wrote for Basilio, the gossiping music master in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, to sing during the Act I Scene 7 ensemble: 'Così fan tutte le belle; non c'é alcuna novitá' ('Beautiful women are all like that; it's nothing new'). The Count has discovered Cherubino hiding in Susanna's room and Basilio has a wonderful new scandal to work on! In Figaro it is not an important line and it's often lost in the complexity of the ensemble, but Da Ponte realized that it fit the plot of his forthcoming opera.

Most of Da Ponte's libretti were adaptations of existing plots...