The received wisdom about Così Fan Tutte, the last in a troika of masterpieces that Mozart wrote to libretti by the scallywag Lorenzo Da Ponte, comes down to three points. One, it’s sexist. Two, the disguises that drive the plot don’t work. Three, the music is heaven.
You’ll get no quarrel about any of this from Renée Fleming, who in her Mozartian heyday dazzled as Fiordiligi, a lady of Naples on whose fidelity her boyfriend places a losing bet. But Fleming has been coming at the story from a different place lately as she prepares for her directorial debut, at the Aspen Music Festival and School, one of her many alma maters.
