Verdi’s work of old age and at the same time the last opera from his pen belongs to the genre of commedia lirica. The premiere of “Falstaff” took place to great acclaim at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1893 and ushered in a renaissance of comic opera at the turn of the century. Falstaff influenced, among others, the cheerful stage works of Richard Strauss and also the brilliant “Gianni Schicchi” by Giacomo Puccini.
The character of Falstaff describes an old man, very obese and fond of drinking, poltrous, who sets out with shrewdness and quick-wittedness to replenish his dwindling financial reserves. This burlesque and entertaining story tells how he succeeds, what intrigues are forged and who ends up happy with whom.
Arrigo Boito wrote a witty libretto based on William Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (including scenes from “Henry IV”), which sparkles with wit and wordplay. Verdi composed the opera at the age of almost 80, and perhaps the fact that as a celebrated composer of the century he no longer had anything to prove to anyone may have contributed to the musical realization being so pointed, lively and authentic.

Almost entirely in December 1789, the year of the revolution, the score of this Mozart opera, which is hard to beat in its complexity and amour, was written in the shortest possible time - this time again in collaboration with the famous librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, with whom Mozart had just before successfully brought "Le nozze di Figaro" to the stage. Probably in the tradition of the opera buffa, the opera “Così fan tutte - ossia la scuola degli amanti” was commissioned by Emperor Joseph II.
At the center of the amusingly frivolous event is the experienced cynic Don Alfonso, who knows the weaknesses of mankind and who, like a puppeteer, allows the four main characters to repeatedly come together in new pair constellations. The plot, which is kept quite simple and contains no superfluous episodes, is symmetrically structured and corresponds to its character according to the Commedia dell’arte. The duets of the individual couples are bewitching and sensually musical, reflecting the vulnerability and impermanence of the human being. After the work was critically and negatively judged due to the moralizing basic attitude of the 19th century, and repeated revisions were made to the libretto, the opera is now one of the absolute favorites of the public.
The American feature film Closer from 2004 with Julia Roberts and Jude Law in the leading roles is based on "Così fan tutte" both in its score and soundtrack.