Life of Mozart

—2g0LABOUR AND POVERTY.If it be true that " Cosi fan Tutte " is in all essentialpoints an opera buffa, it is no less certain that " Titus " maytake its stand as a veritable opera seria. Metastasio wrote" La Clemenza di Tito " in 1734, and it was performed withCaldara's music on the name-day of Charles VI. ; it wassubsequently set to music by several distinguished composers.^^It is true that the public taste had so far alteredthat it was scarcely feasible to present it in its originalform ; but the improvements in the libretto, made byCaterino Mazzola, the Saxon court poet/^ did not affectcharacter of the opera in any important degree.theThe principalchange was the compression of the original three actsinto two, and the omission of a not very happy episode, inwhich Annius, by a change of mantle, is taken for the guiltyperson. The course of the plot is thereby simplified ; butit would be impossible by means of alterations to endow itwith any lively dramatic interest. Nor is it rich in goodmusical situations ; of all the characters Vitellia is the onlyone who displays the least passion ; and the excessiveamount of virtue and generosity depicted affords no fieldeither for musical or dramatic interest. Further condensationswere made of the numerous and, for the most part,rhetorically sententious solo airs, and ensemble movementswere introduced at suitable points. This was accomplishedwith all possible deference to the original design and toMetastasio's verses, so that the character and colouringproper to a court festival piece was well preserved.^^ Thefollowing is a brief abstract of the plot :^1 It was composed, among others, by Leon. Leo, 1735; by Hasse, 1737 ; byJomelli ; by Perez, 1749; by Gluck, 1751 ; by Jos. Scarlatti, 1760; by Naumann,176g.*2 It would be ascribing to Mozart a merit to which he has no claim to credithim with the reconstruction of the libretto (A. M. Z., I., p. 151. Cäcilia, XX.,p. 191).*3 The numbers taken unaltered from Metastasio are: 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 16, 20,21, 25, and the obbligato recitatives, 11, 17, 22, 24. Those for which new wordswere written are the songs for Annius (13, 17), for Sextus (19), and for Vitellia(23); the duets (r, 3, 7), terzets (10, 14, 18), the quintet (12), sestet (26), andthe chorus (15) ; they retain for the most part Metastasio's ideas, and often hisverses and turns of expression.