Se se-gui-ta-te ri-do, ri-do, ri-do, ri-do, ri-do, ri-do, ri-do, ri-do, ri-do, ri-do, and the silent internal chuckle of the Italian is musically expressed to perfection. More especially has the rapid utterance, one of the principal devices of opera buffa, a totally different signification in Italian and German. It is not natural to the German, and appears either exaggerated or vulgar; it should therefore be seldom and carefully employed as a means of characterisation. For an Italian, on the contrary, rapid speech, for which his language is so well adapted, is the natural expression of excitement, and the only question for him is whether he shall give vent to his feelings or exercise control over them. In Italian opera it is used without scruple, and without in itself aiming at making a comic impression; the circumstances, persons engaged, and manner employed give the character of the piece. In the part of Leporello the rapid parlando has a very different expression in different situations, and can always be justified on psychological grounds. But it is by no means exclusively the characteristic of comic persons. In the first finale (Act I., 13) Masetto's rapid outpouring of jealous rage, Zerlina's fear and distress, are not intended to move the {THE RAPID PARLANDO.} (181) audience to laughter; they merely give natural expression to their feelings, and it is the situation which produces the comic effect. These characters, it is true, belong to the lower classes, to whom some indulgence might be accorded in respect of good manners; but even Don Giovanni makes free use of his tongue when he ceases to exercise control over himself. In his intercourse with Leporello especially he allows much freedom to his servant, and lowers himself to the same level; this is of course made apparent in the musical expression, and various small indications of a free and easy tone of conversation have an extraordinary effect on the free and vivid conception of the whole. In the short duet (Act II., 1) in which he appeases the incensed Leporello, he expresses himself altogether after the manner of the latter, but it must be remembered that Leporello is really highly indignant, while Don Giovanni is only in joke all the time; in this contrast consists the comic point of the situation. Again, too, in the first finale, when he loses presence of mind for a moment, he falls into this rapid utterance with the words: "È confusa la mia testa," which, as soon as he has collected himself, ceases again with the words "ma non manca-in me coraggio." In the quartet (Act I.) the danger threatening him through Elvira excites him so greatly that in counselling her to be careful--"Siate un poco più prudente"--the rapidity of his address betrays his own loss of self-control. There is something of a comic tone in this, but the gravity of the situation does not allow it to go beyond a mere shade, and even this rapid parlando ought not to assume a really buffo character.