Marriage of Figaro has a very clever Susanna because it follows the play closely. Yes, I guess this was how some people would think at the time. Maybe I was too harsh. The music is glorious and the singing fine. Thanks for the poem Mr. Eisenberg. See, I can correct myself and am not always an opinionated ass.

I don't think this opera is necessarily derogatory to women. True, it's a product of it's time with some of the statements about women but I think Mozart had a subtle way of belying the meaning of these words; the men who say that women cannot be trusted for example, are in fact being incredibly duplicitous and frankly ridiculous in Cosi! So Mozart may actually have been subtly criticizing the men as well. And certainly in Don Giovanni there are some very fine female characters. In The Magic Flute, a woman is even admitted into the hall of wisdom, a place that only men would be entitled to enter. I think he was, in fact, ahead of his time. Keep in mind, that this was the 1700's - an entirely different mindset. And look how clever Susannah is in Figaro. No, I think Mozart actually had a high opinion of women. And--of course, the music is glorious!

The opera says more than perhaps Mozart and DaPonte knew they were saying. After the men come back in disguise, all four of them discover their true loves. The way the conclusion of the opera should be done is with the tenor marrying the soprano and the baritone marrying the mezzo.
http://www.jochnowitz.net/Essays/ReconsideringCosiFanTutte.html

Do not touch Mozart with your dirty politically correct feminist hands.

Brilliant, irresistible score,
And very fine voices, what's more,
Mozart at his best,
Da Ponte did the rest,
It does make my old spirits soar!

This opera is very deragatory towards women. Same with Don Giovanni but I can forgive Giovanni. But not this one. I think Beethovan was not too keen on this opera and he was shocked at Giovanni. He had women on a pedastle(?)