Così fan tutte

Anyone lucky enough to have seen Kiri Te Kanawa in one of her great Mozart roles knows that this performance is a treasure. As Fiordiligi, one of the two sisters unknowingly being tested by their fiancées, Te Kanawa pulled at our heartstrings even while she was making us laugh. Nothing in the bravura vocal writing, with its fiendish runs and jumps, was too much for her creamy, exquisite voice. Diana Montague is her sister and fellow victim of their love interests, played by David Rendall and Håkan Hagegård.