It was to be several generations before Così fan tutte was given again in Italian in Vienna following the conclusion of the first run on Saturday 7 August in 1790. That the opera continued to receive performances in its original language at all was largely as a result of its promotion by Domenico Guardasoni, whose association with Mozart went back to the première of Don Giovanni in Prague in 1787. After that success, he took full control of the company from the impresario Bondini, and he was responsible for further Italian language performances of the opera in both Prague and Leipzig. A possible commission for a new opera was discussed with the composer during his visit to Prague in the spring of 1789. A Guardasoni production of Così fan tutte in Prague was thus always likely, and the opera was eventually staged by him some time during 1791. His company also presented the opera in Leipzig in subsequent years, but the other contemporary Italian language production, staged in Dresden in 1791, seems to have been a different version.

Domenico Guardasoni's 1791 Prague Production

It has been generally accepted that Mozart had no involvement with any staging of Così outside Vienna. In the nineteenth century, it was claimed that he provided material for a Munich performance, but this theory has long since been abandoned. Yet in the case of Guardasoni's 1791 Prague performances, we must not discount too quickly the possibility that the composer might have been involved in some way. Guardasoni returned to Prague on 10 June 1791 in order to prepare for the staging of La clemenza di Tito. Following Salieri's rejection of this commission, it was offered to Mozart, who arrived in Prague on 28 August. His renewed collaboration with Guardasoni provides an obvious context for the decision to stage a Prague production of Così, but the lack of information about the exact date of the première hampers discussion. With new major projects to complete, Mozart would have had little time to devote to a revival of his earlier opera, yet he could have offered his views on what Guardasoni was planning in something as simple as a ten-minute conversation. The sources certainly suggest that the impresario either consulted the composer or else was given access to materials in his possession.