Life of Mozart

254 " C^S^ ^^^ TUTTE."The parody facilitates the difficult task of carrying themusical expression of emotion to an exaggerated degreewithout making it ugly and unnatural. The refined deliveryof the vocalist, and the ready apprehension of the audience,must always be presupposed. In the character of FiordiligiDa Ponte has unquestionably kept Ferraresi del Bene in view;he was said to stand in tender relations towards her.^^ Accordingto him she had a fine voice and an original and affectingdelivery, and this opinion was confirmed by the Londoncritics, although she was never considered there as a trueprima donna ;^'^ and Mozart himself remarked that it was notsaying much to pronounce AUegrandi far superior to Ferraresi.She had not a good figure, and was but an indifferentactress ; but she had beautiful eyes and a charming mouth,and was in great favour with the public. It is not surprising,therefore, that Fiordiligi should have been placed on ahigher level than her sister, both musically and dramatically.^^Her very first air (14) places her in a far more favourablelight. The disguised lovers, after a decided repulse, renewtheir shameless attack. Fiordiligi's condescending to answerthem and to assert her inflexible constancy may not, indeed,be a proof of fine feeling on her part, but it demands anenergetic and emphatic tone and strong and appropriatecolouring. We therefore have a bravura air in two movements,an andante and allegro, closed by a long coda inaccelerated tempo. The comic effect again rests on theelement of parody, which is even more strongly markedthan in Dorabella's air ; the bravura passages, intervals ofoctaves, tenths and twelfths, the roulades which she flings ather opponents, the bass-like passages in the deeper register ofthe voice, all characterise Fiordiligi's Amazon-like haughtinessin an exaggerated manner. Afterwards, it is true, sheiß Da Ponte, Mem., II., pp. io8, 117.47 Parke, Mus. Mem., I., p. 48.*8 The first part was originally given to Dorabella, the second to Fiordiligi, asfar as -the first finale; this was afterwards altered by Mozart. It can only havearisen from an exchange of names, for that the first part was always intendedforFerraresi is clear from the manner in which the low notes are made use of,evidently to suit her voice.