Life of Mozart

————:88 LE NOZZE DI FIGARO.and so on, until at the endAmore non senton, non senton pietaII resto non dico, giä ognuno lo sä.He has no sooner pronounced the fatal " il resto nondico," when he seems unable to get out any more ; and so itrunsSon streghe che incantano—il resto non dicoSirene che cantano—il resto non dico, &c.giving opportunity for a corresponding musical treatment ofthe words. At last Mozart makes the horns strike in unexpectedlyand finish the phrase for him in a manner full ofmusical fun. As the consciousness grows upon Figaro thathe is himself the injured party, his signs of grief and paingrow stronger and more animated. The blending of warmfeeling with the involuntarily comic expression of intellectualreaction is psychologically true, and in such a character asFigaro's inevitable; it is embodied in the music in a formvery different to that of an ordinary buffo aria. Not lesstrue to nature is Figaro's resigned expression of disappointedlove further on, when, having the evidence of his own sensesthat Susanna has been unfaithful to him, he ejaculates" Tutto e tranquillo." But such a mood as this could notbe a lasting one with Figaro, and changes at once uponSusanna's entrance. Benucci, for whom Mozart wroteFigaro, possessed an " extremely round, full, fine bassvoice." He was considered a first-rate actor as well assinger, and had the rare merit of never exaggerating.^^The individual characterisation is still more sharply definedwhen several personages appear together in similarsituations. Immediately upon the air where Figaro declareswar upon the Count (Act I., 3) follows Bartolo's air (ActI., 5),^^ in which the latter announces his approachingvictory over Figaro. He also is altogether in earnest ;Figaro has cruelly deceived him, and the long-looked-forBerl. Mus. Ztg., 1793, p. 138.1* Bussani, who sang Bartolo and Antonio, had been in the Itahan Opera inVienna in 1772, but left it the following year. He was noted for his " resonantbass voice " (Müller, Genaue Nachr., p. 73).