Life of Mozart

THE MUSIC ENSEMBLES."249opera affords a not ungrateful field for musical representation.The awkwardness of having three terzets for malevoices following each other disappears under Mozart's treatment,since he makes each the natural outcome of thesituation, and they serve as joint members of one organismto produce a natural climax. The first terzet takes itstone from the excited mood of the young officers, which DonAlfonso seeks with easy playfulness to moderate. In thesecond, Don Alfonso comes to the foreground with his oldsong about the phoenix and woman's faith, which he singsin a tone of good-humoured irony, exceedingly well supportedby the orchestra, while the other two try mainly tointerpose and stop him ; it is a most original piece of music,full of excellent humour. The third terzet displays the highspirits of the lovers, raised to a pitch of great excitement,and the music brings the merry feast to which they arealready looking forward vividly before the mind. The lightand cheerful, somewhat superficial tone which here prevails,fixes the ground-tone of the opera. The young men arecharacterised generally, without accentuating their individualities; they stand opposed to Don Alfonso, whose contrastingcharacter comes out all the more sharply. Theduet for the two sisters (4) is more elevated in tone, to accordwith the situation. They are melting in tender emotion asthey gaze on the images of their lovers, and the expressionof the music is full of life and sensuality, but more animatedthan warm, with no echo of those gentle accents in whichMozart elsewhere so inimitably characterises the hiddenlongings of the soul. The unanimity of sentiment here againobscures individual character, and the modifications aremore musical than dramatic in their nature. Don Alfonso's'Figaro ' ! Howmusic would have been debased thereby ! Asprightly,frivolous poet handed him his airs, duets, and ensembles to compose, and accordingto the warmth with which they inspired him, he set them to the musicwhich would endow them with the fullest amount of expression that theywere capable of," Hotho (Vorstudien f. Leben und Kunst, p. 76) is of opinionthat in " Cosi fan Tutte " the female parts are thrown into the shade by themale, while the contrary is the case in " Figaro " and " Don Giovanni," andaccounts for this fact by saying that Mozart was always attracted by that sideof his subject which was mostly suggestive of melody.