Life of Mozart

MUSICAL TREATMENT OF THE DRAMA. 83wealth of dramatic situations and characters was a puregain to an artist who knew how to turn it to account. Thepiercing eye of genius finds materials for its finest performancewhere a more superficial view reveals nothing butdifficulties.If each of the characters, pursuing the intereststhey have at heart, are to express their inner sentiments atevery point in conformity with their nature, it follows thatthe aim of dramatic characterisation in its true sense mustbe the representation of individuality, sharp and precise inform, true and pure as to its source ; thus only will theexaggeration of caricature be avoided. This holds good ofall the chief characters in '* Figaro"—of the Count andCountess, Figaro, Susanna, and Cherubino. They are soentirely governed by their emotions and passions, so completelyinvolved inthe complications proceeding therefrom,that an artistic representation must depend on the depictingof these emotions in their fullest truth.Bartolo and Marcellina seem to invite a treatment incaricature. In the " Barber of Seville " we find the sameBartolo as a buffo character. This is . made impossiblehere by the fact that they are to appear afterwards asFigaro's parents, and ought not, therefore, to cut grotesquefigures in our eyes. Beaumarchais' point, that Marcellinagives herself airs of superiority to Susanna, " parcequ'elle a fait quelques etudes et tourmente la jeunesse deMadame" is not available for musical characterisation,but Mozart brings it out skilfully in another way. In theduet (Act I., 5), in which Susanna and Marcellina viewith each other in impertinence and provocation, the expressionis toned down by the actual disputing being left to theorchestra, and the two women are put quite on an equality.Susanna prevails over Marcellina only by reason of heryouthful grace, and the whole appears an outbreak of thatjealous susceptibility which is said to be an attribute of thefemale sex. Nobler women would not yield to such impulses,but these two belong to no exalted sphere, and give the reinto their angry humours. But they never forget themselvesso far as to offend delicacy, and the general tone is agay one, Marcellina being shown in no way inferior toG 2