Life of Mozart

:LEPORELLO.I7Istriking as is his individuality, is developed out of the traditionsof opera buffa. The distinctive character of the operadepends upon his intimate connection with all the situationsand all the persons. It would not suffice for the due blendingof the contrasting elements that Leporello should scatter jestsin season and out of season on every conceivable topic ;it wasonly by rendering all his acts and expressions consistent withhis character that they could be made to react upon thesituations and persons which brought them forth. He has adistinct personality, with his own way of thinking and feeling,and his own way of expressing himself. The boldnesswith which his essentially comic nature is brought into conflictwith passions and events which sound the very depths of thehuman heart transports us to the highest province of humour.This is especially observable in his relations to his master,with whom he is at once in sympathy and in striking contrast.He has the same desire for enjoyment and display, the samelaxity of moral judgment, the same tendency to treat seriousmatters in a mocking spirit; he does not want ability either,but fails altogether in just those qualities which keep aliveour interest in Don Giovanni — in strength and couragehis cowardice betrays itself on every occasion. While DonGiovanni is on the look-out for every adventure, howeverdaring, and extricates himself from every peril, howeverimminent, Leporello is always pressed into the service, isutterly helpless in any contingency, and escapes finally onlyby virtue of his cowardice. This contradiction between hisnature and his surroundings is all the more entertainingsince he himself is perfectly aware of it. We learn hischaracter from the very first. He is in high dudgeon atbeing forced to mount guard outside while his master isenjoying himself within, and marches impatiently up anddown ; but as he marches, proud thoughts of future grandeurtake possession of his soul. " Voglio far il gentiluomo"he might almost be taken for a cavalier. Suddenly he hearsa noise. He is no longer the grand gentleman, but givesvent to abject fear in his terrified babble, as Don Giovanniwrestles with Donna Anna. When the danger grows serious,and the Commendatore falls, he is seized with horror, but—