Life of Mozart Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 Excerpt: ...lover was a bass, he was either jovial or comical. In spite of all this freedom, certain typical features were formed that recur in all the varieties of grouping and disguise. The opera buffa was far from adopting in dialect or costume the well-defined character, of the Italian popular comedy, but the resemblance in form is unmistakable. It was in imitation of the popular plays that the comic parts were made caricatures, the effect of which depended on striking but exaggerated peculiarities. The music was made to display these,8 and there can be no doubt that the want of individual character in the opera seria favoured the passage to the opposite extreme in the opera buffa. As a relief to the caricatures, mezzo carattere were invented, in which the purely musical element was more pronounced. Intermezzi required an easy and loosely connected plot; the popular jokes would not have come out so well from a studied, well-connected drama, as from effective situations where favourite characters could follow their bent. If the situations were of ample variety, lively and humorous in their rendering, the audience was quite ready to forget how weak the thread was which held them together. The opera buffa was always written for a specified company, and the 8 Mattel (Riforma del Teatro vor Metastasio, Opp. III., p. xix.): Le commedie (per musica) presso di noi son piene di caratteri caricati, e la lingua specialmente Napoletana non e altro che un ammasso di espressioni caricate; non ci e aria, in cui non si esprime o il cane, o la gatta, o gli uccelli, o la ruota che gira o il cannone che spara, e altre cose siraili; qui troverete un ubbriaco, la un matto; qui un che parla e sconnetta, la un che balbuttisce ec. Quelle cose son facilissime ad esprimersi in musica (se be...