Life of Mozart

——:BARTOLO. 89opportunity of vengeance is close at hand: " Tutta Sevillaconosce Bartolo, il birbo Figaro vinto sara." He is full ofpride and self-consciousnessLa vendetta e un piacer serbato ai saggi,L' obliar 1' onte, gl' oltraggiE bassezza, e ognor viltaand the air begins with the forcible and impulsive expressionof this self-consciousness enhanced by rapid instrumentation;Bartolo feels the injury done to him, and his obligation inhonour to avenge himself, and the sincerity of this feelinginvests him with a certain amount of dignity. But hischaracter has none of the elements of true greatness ; assoon as he begins to descant on the way in which he is tooutwit Figaro, his grovelling spirit betrays itself; he exciteshimself with his own chatter, and complacently announceshis own triumph beforehand. Bartolo's dignity is not,however, a parody on his true self; the comic elementconsists in the contrast of the pride which lays claim todignity and the small-mindedness which unwittingly forfeitsthe claim. The German translations lose the chief point ofthe characterisation. Capitally expressed is the original" coir astuzia, coll' arguzia, col giudizio, col criterio, sipotrebbe " here the orchestra takes up the motif of thewords "e basezza," as if to edge him on, but soon subsides,as he recollects himself: "si potrebbe, si potrebbe"—suddenlyinterrupted by " il fatto e serio," to which the wholeorchestra responds with a startling chord ; thereupon heresumes with calm self-confidence :" ma, credete, si farä,"and then launches into the flood of trivialities with whichhe seeks to bolster up his courage.Steffano Mandini, the original Count Almaviva, was consideredby Kelly as one of the first buffos of the day,^^ andChoron used to hold him up to his scholars as his ideal ofa singer.^^ At the moment when Susanna has hearkened tohis suit, he infers from a word let fall by her that she has15 Kelly, Reminisc, I., pp. 121, 19Ö.^'5P. Scudo, Musique Ancienne at Moderne, pp. 22, 23.