<Dd> Place: Naples </Dd> <Dd> Time: the 18th century </Dd> <P> Scene 1: A coffeehouse </P> <P> In a cafe, Ferrando and Guglielmo (two officers) express certainty that their fiancées (Dorabella and Fiordiligi, respectively) will be eternally faithful . Don Alfonso expresses skepticism and claims that there is no such thing as a faithful woman . He lays a wager with the two officers, claiming he can prove in a day's time that those two, like all women, are fickle . The wager is accepted: the two officers will pretend to have been called off to war; soon thereafter they will return in disguise and each attempt to seduce the other's lover . The scene shifts to the two women, who are praising their men (duet: Ah guarda sorella--"Ah look sister"). Alfonso arrives to announce the bad news: the officers have been called off to war . Ferrando and Guglielmo arrive, brokenhearted, and bid farewell (quintet: Sento, o Dio, che questo piede è restio--"I feel, oh God, that my foot is reluctant"). As the boat with the men sails off to sea, Alfonso and the sisters wish them safe travel (trio: Soave sia il vento--"May the wind be gentle"). Alfonso, left alone, gloatingly predicts that the women (like all women) will prove unfaithful (arioso: Oh, poverini, per femmina giocare cento zecchini?--"Oh, poor little ones, to wager 100 sequins on a woman"). </P>

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