Una bella serenata

Luigi Alva as Ferrando, Hermann Prey as Guglielmo and Walter Berry as Don Alfonso sing 'La mia Dorabella' / 'E la fede delle femmine' / 'Una bella serenata' (1972) Cosi fan tutte (1790) Karl Böhm (conductor) Wiener Philharmoniker * Cosi fan tutte * Mozart (English script below)

You might also wish to see two earlier renditions:

1956: 1957: ________________________________________

FERRANDO
My Dorabella couldn't do such a thing:
Heaven made her as faithful as she's fair.

GUGLIELMO
My Fiordiligi simply couldn't betray me:
I believe her constancy equals her beauty.

DON ALFONSO
My hair is already grey,i speak with authority;
But let's have done with argument.

FERRANDO AND GUGLIELMO
No, you've told us they could be faithless;
If you're honest you will prove it.

DON ALFONSO
Let's not trouble with proof.

FERRANDO AND GUGLIELMO
No, no, we demand it:Or out with your sword
And we'll break up this friendship,

DON ALFONSO
O what folly to try to discover
The wrong which will make us wretched when we've found it!

FERRANDO AND GUGLIELMO
He strikes at my honour who allows his lips
To utter a word which does her wrong.

GUGLIELMO
Draw your sword! Choose which of us you'd prefer.

DON ALFONSO
I'm a peaceable man and don't touch steel Except at table.

FERRANDO
Either fight, or say at once
Why you suspect our sweethearts could possibly be untrue.

DON ALFONSO
Sweet simplicity, how I love it!

FERRANDO
A truce to your jests, or I swear, by heaven ...

DON ALFONSO
And I swear by this world, my friends, I'm not jesting;
I'd only like to know what kind of creatures are these beauties of yours,
if they're flesh and blood and bone like us, if they eat like us,
and wear skirts, if, in fact, they're goddesses or women ...

FERRANDO AND GUGLIELMO
They're women, but the like of them ...

DON ALFONSO
And in woman you expect to find fidelity?
How I love such simplicity!

DON ALFONSO
Woman's constancy is like the Arabian Phoenix;
Everyone swears it exists, but no one knows where.

FERRANDO
The phoenix is my Dorabella.

GUGLIELMO
The phoenix is my Fiordiligi.

DON ALFONSO
It's neither one nor the other. It never existed, and never will.

FERRANDO
Poets' nonsense!

GUGLIELMO
Old men's drivel!

DON ALFONSO
Well then, listen, but without flying into a rage:
What proof have you that your loves are always true to you?
What makes you so sure that their hearts are steadfast?

FERRANDO
Long acquaintance.

GUGLIELMO
Their noble upbringing.

FERRANDO
Their sublime thoughts.

GUGLIELMO
Kindred feelings.

FERRANDO
Unselfishness.

GUGLIELMO
Steadfast characters.

FERRANDO
Their promises.

GUGLIELMO
Their protests.

FERRANDO
Their oaths.

DON ALFONSO
Tears and sighs, caresses, swoons. Excuse me if I laugh!

FERRANDO
Confound you! Stop taunting us!

DON ALFONSO
Gently, gently; what if I prove conclusively to you today
That they're just like the others?

GUGLIELMO
It couldn't be!

FERRANDO
Impossible!

DON ALFONSO
Shall we bet on it?

FERRANDO
We're on!

DON ALFONSO
A hundred sequins.

GUGLIELMO
A thousand, if you like.

DON ALFONSO
My hand on it!

FERRANDO
Both hands!

DON ALFONSO
Swear not to give a sign, a whisper,
A hint of all this to your Penelopes.

FERRANDO
We swear.

DON ALFONSO
On your honour as soldiers?

GUGLIELMO
On our honour as soldiers.

DONALFONSO
And you'll do everything I tell you to?

FERRANDO
Everything!

GUGLIELMO
Even more!

DON ALFONSO
Well done!

FERRANDO AND GUGLIELMO
And well done, dear Don Alfonso!

FERRANDO
We'll make merry at your expense.

GUGLIELMO
to Ferrando
What shall we do with the hundred sequins?

No. 3 - Trio

FERRANDO
I'll arrange a fine serenade for my goddess.

GUGLIELMO
In honour of Venus I will give a banquet.

DON ALFONSO
Shall I be invited?

FERRANDO AND GUGLIELMO
Yes, you shall be there.

FERRANDO, GUGLIELMO AND DON ALFONSO
And many a toast we'll offer to the god of love.