also that, being all together for the quartet, to arrange their contemplated attack, the men should go out to collect the necessary assistants, leaving the two women quietly in their retreat. All that can be allowed them is a few lines of recitative. I cannot imagine that it was intended to prolong the scene, only that the direction for closing it was omitted by mistake. I am very curious to hear your good idea for bringing Biondello into the tower; if it is only comical enough, we will overlook a good deal that may be unnatural. I am not at all afraid of a few fireworks; all the arrangements here are so good that there is no danger of fire. "Medea" has been given repeatedly, at the end of which half the palace falls in ruins while the other half is in flames.
Whether Varesco refused to give up the "goose business," whether he was afraid of further endless emendations, or what his reasons were, who can tell? In any case no radical change was made in the text, and, much against his will, Mozart was forced to lay the opera aside. Besides a recitative and the cursory sketch of a tenor air, six numbers of the first act are preserved in draft score (422 K.), with, as usual, the voice parts and bass completely written out, and the ritornelli and accompaniment more or less exactly indicated for the different instruments. Four numbers belong to Auretta and Chichibio; the comparison with "Figaro" is an obvious one, and though Chichibio is far from being a Figaro, Auretta approaches much nearer to Susanna. The situation of her air (2) is not badly imagined. Calandrino, hearing from Auretta that Chichibio is very jealous, embraces her in jest and says, "What would Chichibio say if he saw us?" Thereupon that personage enters, and Auretta, pretending not to observe him, sings:--
Se fosse qui nascoso Quell' Argo mio geloso, O, poverina me!
Direbbe: "O maledetta, Pettegola, fraschetta! La fedeltà dov' è?"
Pur sono innocente, Se fosse presente, Direbbe tra se:
"O qui non c' è pericolo, Un caso si ridicolo Goder si deve affè."
The musical apprehension of the contrasts contained in the words is remarkably humorous and graceful, and especially the point to which the whole tends. "O qui non cè peri-colo" is as charmingly roguish as anything in "Figaro." Chichibio's comic air (3) is in the genuine style of Italian buffo, and consists of a rapid _parlando_; after the direction to close with the ritornello it acquires some originality of colour from the instrumentation. In the shorter of the two duets between Auretta and Chichibio, the orchestra was also intended to play a prominent part. The first duet (1), however, is more important and more broadly designed; Auretta provokes Chichibio's jealousy in the traditional manner, and then seeks to appease it. The whole piece, with its shifting humours, is lively and amusing, and the subject--[See Page Image]