Al desio di chi t' adora Vieni, vola, o mia speranza, Morirö, se indarno ancora Tu mi lasci sospirar. Le promesse, i giuramenti Deh! ramenta, o mio tesoro! E i momenti di ristoro Che mi fece amor aperar. Ah! che omai più non resisto All' ardor, che il sen m' accende. Chi d' amor gli affetti intende, Compatisca il mio penar. with the reference to vows and hopes unfulfilled seem better suited to the Countess than to Susanna, though the air is clearly indicated for the latter. Apparently the song was intended to strengthen Figaro in the delusion that it was the Countess he saw before him. The device might intensify the situation, but it was a loss to the musical characterisation, for the air was not altogether appropriate either to Susanna or the Countess. The singer had evidently wished for a grand, brilliant air, and Mozart humoured her by composing the air in two broadly designed and elaborately executed movements, allied in style to the great airs in "Cosi fan Tutte," and in "Titus." The bravura of the voice and orchestra is as entirely foreign to "Figaro" as is the greater display of sensual vigour with which the longing for the beloved one is expressed. Apart from its individual characterisation, the air has wonderful effects of sound and expression, greatly heightened by the orchestra. Basset-horns, bassoons, and horns are employed, occasionally _concertante_, giving a singularly full and soft tone-colouring to the whole. A draft score, unfortunately incomplete, in Mozart's handwriting, testifies to a later abandoned attempt for a similar song. The superscription is "_Scena con Rondo_"[23] the person indicated, Susanna. The beginning of the recitative, both in words and music, is like that of the better-known {LE NOZZE DI FIGARO.} (94) song, and it expresses the same idea somewhat more diffusely as it proceeds, closing in B flat major. The solitary leaf preserved breaks off at the eighth bar of the rondo; only the voice-part and the bass are given--[See Page Image] but even this fragment of text and melody suffices to show a complete contrast to the air just mentioned. A little ariette preserved in Mozart's original score and marked "Susanna" (579 K.), has still less of the delicate characterisation which we admire so much in the opera.[24]The words-- Un moto di gioja Mi sento nel petto, Che annunzia diletto In mezzo il timor. Speriamo che in contento Finisca l' affanno, Non sempre è tiranno fato ed amor-- are trifling, and so commonplace that they suggest no particular situation. Even the music, hastily thrown together and light in every respect, expresses only a superficially excited mood. If, as is probable, the air was intended for the dressing scene,[25] the want of individual characterisation {SUSANNA.} (95)