Spitz,Pat &Co : "Cosi fan Tutte"

drawing by marguerita for an unpublished book project.
Soave sia il vento—"May the wind be gentle""Vorrei dir, e cor non ho" - Don Alfonso in Act I, Scene II.
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti (Thus Do They All, or The School For Lovers) K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Lorenzo da Ponte.

Così is one of the three Mozart operas for which da Ponte wrote the libretto. (The title is often shortened to Così in the English-speaking world.) The other two da Ponte-Mozart collaborations were Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni.

Così was written and composed at the suggestion of the Emperor Joseph II.
The libretto was originally intended to be set to music by Mozart's contemporary Antonio Salieri but Salieri only completed parts of the first act and then broke off work on the opera.
The title, Così fan tutte, literally means "Thus do all [women]" but it is often translated as "Women are like that". The words are sung by the three men in Act II, Scene xiii, just before the finale. Da Ponte had used the line "Così fan tutte le belle" earlier in Le nozze di Figaro (in Act I, Scene vii).from Wikipedia
Mozart and Da Ponte took as a theme "fiancée swapping" which dates back to the 13th century, with notable earlier versions being those of Boccaccio's Decameron and Shakespeare's play Cymbeline. Elements from Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew are also present. Furthermore, it incorporates elements of the myth of Procris as found in Ovid's Metamorphoses, vii.


Adultery

Main Entry: adul�tery
Pronunciation: &-'d&l-t(&-)rE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -ter�ies
Etymology: Middle English, alteration of avoutrie, from Middle French, from Latin adulterium, from adulter adulterer, back-formation from adulterare
Date: 15th century
: voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman and someone other than her husband; also : an act of adultery

Note that the etymology of the word "adultery" is the Latin word "adulterium":

Adulterium, adulteri(i), N, adultery; blending/mixing fo different strains/ingredients; contamination.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/is-adultery-a-crime-in-new-york/#comment-240402