MOZART had been so well satisfied with Da Ponte's libretto for "Figaro" that he had no hesitation in intrusting the new libretto to him, and immediately on his return to Vienna they consulted together as to the choice of subject. Da Ponte, fully convinced of the many-sidedness of Mozart's genius, proposed "Don Giovanni," and Mozart at once agreed to it. Da Ponte relates,[1] with an amusing amount of swagger, that he was engaged at one and the same time on "Tarar" for Salieri, on the "Arbore di Diana" for Martin, and on "Don Giovanni" for Mozart. Joseph II. made some remonstrance on this, to which Da Ponte answered that he would do his best; he could write for Mozart at night and imagine himself reading Dante's "Inferno"; for Martin in the morning, and be reminded of Petrarch; and in the evening for Salieri, who should be his Tasso. Thereupon he set to work, a bottle of wine and his Spanish snuffbox before him, and his hostess's pretty daughter by his side to enact the part of inspiring muse. The first day, the two first scenes of "Don Giovanni," two scenes of the "Arbore di Diana," and more than half of the first act of "Tarar" were written, and in sixty-three days the whole of the first two operas and two-thirds of the last were ready. Unfortunately we have no certain information either of the share taken by Mozart in the construction of the text, nor of the manner in which his composition was carried on. The warmth of his reception at Prague made the contrast of his position in Vienna all the more galling to him. On the departure of Storace, Kelly, and Attwood for England, in February, 1787, he had seriously entertained the idea of following them as soon as they had found a situation worthy of his acceptance {VIENNA, 1787--DITTERSDORF.} (127) in London. The bass singer Fischer, who was visiting Vienna,[2] wrote in Mozart's album on April 1, 1787, the following verses, more well-meaning than poetical:-- Die holde Göttin Harmonie Der Tone und der Seelen, Ich dächte wohl, sie sollten nie Die Musensöhnen fehlen, Doch oft ist Herz und Mund verstimmt; Dort singen Lippen Honig, Wo doch des Neides Feuer glimmt-- Glaub mir, es gebe wenig Freunde die den Stempel tragen Echter Treu, Rechtschaffenheit. The lines throw a light on Mozart's relations to his fellow-artists, and the hint contained in Barisani's album verses, written on April 14, 1787, that the Italian composers envied him his art (Vol. II., p. 306), leaves no doubt as to whose envy, in the opinion of himself and his friends, he had to dread. A musical connoisseur, visiting Vienna on his return from Italy in the spring of 1787,[3] found everybody engrossed with Martin's "Cosa Rara," which, Storace's departure having rendered its performance in Italian impossible, was being played in a German adaptation at the Marinelli theatre with success. Dittersdorfs success in German opera had also the effect of throwing Mozart completely into the shade.