page_title: Così fan tutte (Alain Lombard recording)
section_title: Critical reception
hierarchical_section_title: Così fan tutte (Alain Lombard recording) / Critical reception
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Burgtheater &#160; This media shows the protected monument with the number 30699 in Austria. (Commons, de, Wikidata)
context_page_description: Così fan tutte is a 178-minute studio album of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera, performed by Jules Bastin, Philippe Huttenlocher, Kiri Te Kanawa, David Rendall, Frederica von Stade and Teresa Stratas with the Choeurs de l'Opéra du Rhin and the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Alain Lombard. It was released in 1978.
context_section_description: The musicologist Stanley Sadie reviewed the album on LP in Gramophone in May 1978. Comparing it with rival recordings conducted by Herbert von Karajan and Karl Böhm, he acknowledged that these classic readings offered singing of a "subtlety and poise" that Alain Lombard's version could not equal. On the other hand, the new album's students at Don Alfonso's school for lovers came to their classroom with "youthful timbre[s] and natural high spirits" that were nicely appropriate to their roles. As Fiordiligi, Kiri Te Kanawa was "magnificent", singing "in her best, creamiest voice". Aristocratic in "Come scoglio" and meditatively introspective in "Per pietà", she infused her role with tenderness and feminity. Her only fault was that she sometimes sang slightly flat. Frederica von Stade's Dorabella was "hardly less distinguished, with ample, broad phrasing, much well shaped detail in 'Smanie implacibili' and a graceful and spirited account of 'E' amore un ladroncello'." David Rendall, although sharing Te Kanawa's tendency to sing below the note, offered a Ferrando with the requisite honey for "Un' aura amorosa" and the requisite fire for "Tradito, schernito". Philippe Huttenlocher gave a "very polished performance" as Guglielmo, acting the part convincingly, using his words intelligently and bringing a laudable legato to "Non siate ritrosi". Jules Bastin's Alfonso was sung forcefully but without much expressiveness, a charge that could not be levelled at Teresa Stratas. Her Despina was vivid and extremely musical, but it was "a pity that she felt the need to squeak and squawk so grotesquely in her impersonations of a doctor and a notary". The chief failings of the album, though, had nothing to do with any of its soloists. The orchestral playing suffered from "a lack of finesse", and the conducting from a dearth of dramatic conviction and "a general lack of sparkle". Sadie did not take exception to Lombard's bias towards slow tempi, but he was disappointed that the album evinced no care over appoggiaturas. (A further instance of negligence was the clipping of bar 49 of "Come scoglio" by a clumsy editor.) Overall, the album was a good one, but not good enough to compete with the best of its many illustrious predecessors,
   
  J. B. Steane reviewed the album on LP in Gramophone in July 1978. He was sad that it was one of those opera recordings in which excellence was betrayed by the mediocrity surrounding it. The excellence in question was provided by the two ladies from Ferrara. Kiri Te Kanawa sang Fiordiligi with an acute sensitivity to her music's meaning, her voice "at its most beautiful, warm and well-rounded". As Dorabella, Frederica von Stade was Te Kanawa's perfect foil, her timbre complementing the soprano's so well that their voices blended in their duets in a way that could hardly be bettered.  But Teresa Stratas, although a vivid Despina, sang with a tone that gave little pleasure. As Guglielmo, Philippe Huttenlocher was "inelegant". As Ferrando, David Rendall sang with a piano tone that lacked focus and a forte that sounded muffled. And worst of all, Alain Lombard seemed unable to distinguish between passages where a slow tempo was heavenly and others where it was laughable. "Instead of placing the partnership of Te Kanawa and von Stade in the place where it belongs, classic in freshness, beauty and character", the album's flaws had in Steane's view consigned it to the margins of the Così fan tutte discography. "You do not wear a diamond in a leaden ring."
    
  George Jellinek reviewed the album on LP in Stereo Review in August 1978. Like Sadie and Steane, he singled out Kiri Te Kanawa for especial praise, lauding her "abundant musicality and tone of creamy richness throughout most of the range". However, he thought that the cruel vocal assault course that Mozart had created for Fiordiligi had been difficult for her to negotiate. Frederica von Stade sang just as beautifully, and it was not her fault if her timbre was too like Te Kanawa's to allow an ideal degree of contrast between them. Teresa Stratas was an older Despi
caption: Vienna's Burgtheater, where Così fan tutte was first performed
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