A Book of Operas: Their Histories, Their Plots, and Their MusicKrehbiel, Henry Edward
History
A Book of Operas: Their Histories, Their Plots, and Their Music
Krehbiel, Henry Edward
Operas -- Stories, plots, etc.
help trying his wit at the outcome of the adventure, though his
master is in little mood for sportiveness, steal away as they see
lights and hear a commotion in the palace. Donna Anna comes back to
the garden, bringing her affianced lover, Don Ottavio, whom she had
called to the help of her father. She finds the Commandant dead,
and breaks into agonizing cries and tears. Only an accompanied
recitative, but every ejaculation a cry of nature! Gounod is wrought
up to an ecstasy by Mozart's declamation and harmonies. He suspends
his analysis to make this comment:--
But that which one cannot too often remark nor too often endeavor
to make understood, that which renders Mozart an absolutely unique
genius, is the constant and indissoluble union of beauty of form
with truth of expression. By this truth he is human, by this beauty
he is divine. By truth he teaches us, he moves us; we recognize each
other in him, and we proclaim thereby that he indeed knows human
nature thoroughly, not only in its different passions, but also in
the varieties of form and character that those passions may assume.
By beauty the real is transfigured, although at the same time it
is left entirely recognizable; he elevates it by the magic of a
superior language and transports it to that region of serenity and
light which constitutes Art, wherein Intelligence repeats with a
tranquillity of vision what the heart has experienced in the trouble
of passion. Now the union of truth with beauty is Art itself.
Don Ottavio attempts to console his love, but she is insane with
grief and at first repulses him, then pours out her grief and calls
upon him to avenge the death of her father. Together they register
a vow and call on heaven for retribution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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