Despina, Cupid and the pastoral mode of Così fan tutte

One of Così fan tutte's more amusing episodes occurs in the first-act finale when Despina marches on stage disguised as a doctor and, in a spoof on Mesmerism, produces a magnet to heal the stricken Albanians. She introduces this little scenario with a ridiculous salutation: ‘Salvete, amabiles, bones puelles’. The source of this mangled Latin is interesting: it is present in Mozart's autograph, but not in Da Ponte's libretto, where the Latin appears in its proper form, ‘bonae puellae’. Only two words, to be sure, but they have attracted attention because of the rare glimpse they offer of Mozart's direct intervention in a Da Ponte text, of a parting of ways between composer and librettist. Mozart's change has traditionally been interpreted not as an error at all, but as a kind of ‘correction’ of Despina's character: since the servant Despina lacks the status and education to know proper Latin, Mozart portrays her in a way that is true to her station. As one commentator says, she ‘understands only half of what she says; she imitates what she has picked up from frequent doctor's visits to her masters’.