Così Fan Tutte

The third performance of Mozart's comic romp conducted by Riccardo Muti to appear on DVD, this 1996 production from the Wiener Staatsoper in Vienna is an impressive mounting, captured with fluid camerawork and presented here with excellent sound (in DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, and PCM stereo). The plot—in which two besotted lovers unwisely accept a bet to disguise themselves and swap girlfriends in order to test the fidelity of their sweethearts—is a lark, but the music is consistently exquisite, performed with obvious affection by the members of the Staatsoper Orchestra under the baton of Muti, whose reading is fleet but never routine. The cast—which includes, in the principal four roles, Barbara Frittoli, Angelika Kirchschlager, Bo Skovhus, and Alessandro Corbelli—is strong, exhibiting a real feel for the opera's humor, aided by Roberto de Simone's witty 19th-century-style staging. The only minor quibble is that here (and in all of his other audio and video recordings), Muti makes two little cuts in the score—the duet Al fato dan legge in Act I and the aria Ah! Lo veggio in Act II—neither of which are fatal, but both are inexplicable. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)