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Writer's pictureAndy Lowe

All Women are Like That (Hall of Fame #96)

This eyebrow-raising and possibly clickbait title is an English translation Cosí Fan Tutte, the Mozart opera which ranks at 96th place in Classic FM's 2020 Hall of Fame.


Having sat through a recording of the entire opera last night (over three hours, with English subtitles) I can tell you that a woman will readily cheat on her lover on the same day he sails to war, by fooling around with her own sister's boyfriend, albeit clueless to his identity due to his fake moustache and curiously adorned fez, and having been coerced into compassion through witnessing a staged suicide by poison attempt. Happens all the time.


I'm not an opera fan. It was all very tuneful but I found myself getting more interested in the absurd plot (and costumes) than the actual music. That's possibly influenced by the fact that the audio quality of a 1992 performance uploaded to YouTube isn't top notch. I'm not going to repeat the whole experience on Spotify, but perhaps I'll check out one of the three highlighted pieces in the Hall of Fame.


Below is the full-length video I watched. For me, the best music comes at the Act 1 Climax, which you can find at about 1 hour 33 mins. Here you can also appreciate the wonderful disguise worn by the maid Despina, who was brilliantly acted by Eirian James.



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