opera affords a not ungrateful field for musical representation. The awkwardness of having three terzets for male voices following each other disappears under Mozart's treatment, since he makes each the natural outcome of the situation, and they serve as joint members of one organism to produce a natural climax. The first terzet takes its tone from the excited mood of the young officers, which Don Alfonso seeks with easy playfulness to moderate. In the second, Don Alfonso comes to the foreground with his old song about the phoenix and woman's faith, which he sings in a tone of good-humoured irony, exceedingly well supported by the orchestra, while the other two try mainly to interpose and stop him; it is a most original piece of music, full of excellent humour. The third terzet displays the high spirits of the lovers, raised to a pitch of great excitement, and the music brings the merry feast to which they are already looking forward vividly before the mind. The light and cheerful, somewhat superficial tone which here prevails, fixes the ground-tone of the opera. The young men are characterised generally, without accentuating their individualities; they stand opposed to Don Alfonso, whose contrasting character comes out all the more sharply. The duet for the two sisters (4) is more elevated in tone, to accord with the situation. They are melting in tender emotion as they gaze on the images of their lovers, and the expression of the music is full of life and sensuality, but more animated than warm, with no echo of those gentle accents in which Mozart elsewhere so inimitably characterises the hidden longings of the soul. The unanimity of sentiment here again obscures individual character, and the modifications are more musical than dramatic in their nature. Don Alfonso's {COSI FAN TUTTE.} (250)