carried out by the orchestra and toyed with by the voice-parts, is of a mingled grace and intensity truly worthy of Mozart. Then there are sketches of two great ensembles. The quartet (6) in which the lovers converse from afar has less of a buffo character and more true feeling; the two pairs of lovers are clearly distinguished, and their characteristics sharply defined. The finale (7), on the other hand, is altogether in the liveliest buffo tone. At the beginning the lovers are full of eagerness and hope at the building of the bridge, then follows the excitement of suspense, and when Don Pippo actually appears a general tumult breaks out. It does not lie in the nature of this situation to make the same display of rich variety, nor of the dignity of deep emotion, which we admire so much in other finales; it is calculated rather to excite wonder at the long continuation of spirited movement and ascending climax. In the last presto, especially, this is quite extraordinary; here the chorus (contrary to custom in comic opera) is independent and full of effect, yielding to no later work of the same kind. A proof of the figure Don Pippo is intended to cut is given in this {LO SPOSO DELUSO, 1784.} (59) finale. The short andante maestoso, "Io sono offeso! La mia eccellenza, la prepotenza soffrir non de," indicates a grand buffo part such as never occurs in any other opera. We have, it is true, but a weak and shadowy outline of all these movements. Let the experiment be made of imagining corresponding numbers of "Figaro" and "Don Giovanni" deprived of all their orchestral parts except the bass, and a few bars to suggest the different motifs, and how much weaker and more colourless will be the image that remains! So, also, we can scarcely arrive at even an approximate idea of the life which Mozart would have thrown into these sketches when he came to work them out in all their detail and brilliancy of colouring. They betray, in common with all the works of this period, the firm touch of a master, and possess a singular interest to the student, even in their incomplete form. Who can say that Mozart, if he had finished the opera, would not have succeeded in overcoming the weaker points of the libretto? And yet he scarcely seems to have hoped as much himself, seeing that he finally laid aside the work, begun with so much eagerness and carried on so far. But he was far from abandoning his design, and seeing no immediate prospect of a new libretto, he selected from among the numerous books which he had collected one that he might at least hope to see put on the stage. This was "Lo Sposo Deluso" ("Der gefoppte Brautigam"), probably the same opera which was produced at Padua in the winter of 1787, with music by Cav. Pado.[29] That it was a libretto which had already been made use of follows from the fact that Mozart made some corrections from the original of inaccuracies as to names committed by the ignorant Italian copyist.