Nel laboratorio di Da Ponte: Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro e la librettistica coeva

Abstract

That the wide knowledge of other writers' works for the theatre and the borrowing of textual elements from them was normal procedure for Lorenzo da Ponte and other contemporary librettists, has now been proved even for an opera like Così fan tutte, long considered to be a completely original work. This article sets up a comparison between the texts of Così fan tutte and the Marriage of Figaro and a repertory which was very popular at the time: the librettos written in the sixties and seventies of the eighteenth century. It examines in particular librettos by Chiari, the young Bertati, and Antonio Galuppi, published between 1761 and 1766 and performed in the cities which Da Ponte visited (Venice, Dresden, and Vienna). A linguistic analysis shows strong parallels with some librettos by Da Ponte. He plays with theatrical models which to his public seemed dated and affected, maintaining typical stereotypes and stylistic features, thus making an extraordinary critique of the repertory of the previous generation. In Così fan tutte, the assimilation and the transformations of the most common forms of the dramma giocoso take on a metatheatrical flavour, producing an ironical comic effect which enhances the self-conscious nature of the acting by Da Ponte's characters. Thus it becomes clear that Da Ponte followed a definite procedure (in the shadow of a very demanding Mozart), which consisted of the rewriting of well-known theatrical fragments, with a linguistic refinement of the poetic expression and a careful rethinking of the scene.