Life of Mozart

:GERMAN ADAPTATIONS. 167hero is continually met on the field of his heroic deeds. Itis true that some of the passionate force which distinguishesthe Spanish drama is thereby sacrificed, but, on the otherhand, the murders and low crimes which were heaped up inthis deformity been occasionally removed by the introductionof the original recitative in its stead. ^'^^ But, apart fromspoils the melodious flow of the words ; it even distorts thesense, and puts into the mouths of the singers sentimentsforeign alike to the situation and to the music.-^^^But whatever merit Da Ponte's libretto may claim, itclaims chiefly as having given occasion to Mozart's music1^2 O. Gumprecht, Deutsch. Theater-Archiv, 1859, Nos. 2, 3.1*3 The earliest translation is that by Bitter, mentioned by E. G. Neefe (1789).Don Giovanni is called Herr von Schwankereich ; Leporello, Fickfack. It circulatedin manuscript, and was the foundation of most of the earlier Germanversions, as well as of those by Schröder and Rochlitz (Leipzig, 1801), whichcannot be adjudged free from the faults of their predecessors. Kugler showedby his own attempt how difficult a task it was (Argo, 1859, p. 353). A greatadvance has been made in the recent versions of W. Viol (" Don Juan "of the love adventures in which he engages ; there can beno question that the cheerful tone which runs through thewhole opera depends chiefly on the repulses with which thethe German burlesques of "Don Giovanni" also disappeared,and the concentration of the action dispensed with a numberof ill-connected and licentious scenes. Unfortunately theGerman adaptations have made a concession to the populartaste in retaining the accustomed Carnival frolic, which hasnothing whatever in common with Da Ponte's " DonGiovanni"—to say nothing of Mozart. Only of late hasthis, the current German version not only misses the easy,often striking and graceful style of the Italian verses, and(527 K.). One is accustomed to consider the libretto ofan opera as the canvas on which the composer is to workBreslau, 1858) ; L. Bischoff, in Simrock's pianoforte score (Cf. Niederrh. Mus.Ztg., 1858, p. ;397 1859, p. 88) ; A. von Wolzogen (Deutsche Schaub., IX.,i860) ; C. H. Bitter (Mozart's " Don Juan " u. Gluck's " Iphigenia in Tauris,"Berlin, 1866). Lyser's announcement of a translation by Mozart himself(N. Ztschr., XXI., p. 174), of which he quoted fragments, was unquestionablythe result of a mystification, in spite of Lyser's repeated declaration that hehad copied from the autograph original in the possession of Mozart's son(Wien. Mus. Ztg., 1845, P- 322), where AI. Fuchs did not find it (Ibid., p. 343).