ABSTRACT
At the end of Alfonso’s preceding aria ‘Tutti accusan le donne’ (No. 30), which I discussed in Chapter 4, the verbal associations of the distinctive question and answer cadence at the end of the slow introduction to the overture are made clear: Così fan tutte; the hypothesis is proven. The opposition between the lyrical oboe melody and the following cadence at the opening of the opera sets up what it is all about: an ideal vision of a transcendent love opposed to a materialist conception of active masculine desires and passive feminine feelings.
