There was, at all events, no opposition to be feared on the part of the singers or the orchestra; they and Mozart were mutually anxious to satisfy each other. But their joint labours and the requirements of the stage showed many alterations in the text to be necessary, and Varesco must have been often appealed to to undertake these, or to sanction proposed changes. Among the performers for whom he wrote, Dal Prato gave him some real trouble. Soon after his arrival he had "a piece of roguery" to narrate (November 8, 1780): "I have not indeed the honour of knowing the heroic Dal Prato, but according to the description Ceccarelli must be better than he; for sometimes his breath fails in the middle of a song, and, _nota bene_, he was never on the stage, and Raaff is like a statue. Now, you may imagine the scene in the first act, the meeting of Idomeneo and Idamante." Further acquaintance with Dal Prato justified the reports concerning him. "My _molto amato Castrato dal Prato_," he writes (November 15,1780), "requires teaching the whole opera"; "he has to learn his part like a child, and has not a pennyworth of method" (November 22, 1780). He was the stumbling block also in the quartet, which had to be rehearsed six times before it went right. "The fellow can do nothing," complains Mozart (December 30, 1780); "his voice would not be so bad if he did not sing in his throat and head, but he is absolutely without intonation or method or sentiment, and sings like the best among the boys who come to be heard when they seek admission to a choir." He had trouble of quite another kind with his "dear old friend" Raaff. He was exceedingly fanciful, and Mozart made many alterations out of love for him and consideration for his gray hairs (December 27, 1780):-- {IDOMENEO.} (134)