Phil and I had a long, lovely chat this morning--evening already for him--covering our usual shoes-to-sealing wax agenda:  The Pope and his new red slippers, how many German women read the novels of Yukio Mishima, wunderschönen Monat Mai, Heidegger and The Book of Tea (I had to tell him); but most of all we talked about Così Fan Tutte:  He and Corinna had just seen a fine performance of it at the Cologne opera house last night--and he was full of it.  We talked about what a wonderful librettist Da Ponte was; how important it is to do Così "straight":  Period sets and costumes (and these must be beautiful and extravagant), and young, strong, good-looking singers for the four principals.  We touched on how "transporting" is "Soave sia il Vento," and I ventured the observation that one of the things that makes the disguises of Ferrando, Guglielmo, and Despina half-way believable is distance-between-persons accepted as a given in the Siècle des Lumières....I wonder if I meant that.