The orchestra is no longer to be looked upon as a mere accompaniment to the voices, but as an independent and co-operating means of representation. And as such we find it in "Figaro." In many passages the orchestra seems to take the lead--as, for instance, in the dressing scene (Act II., 3), when the animated, {LE NOZZE DI FIGARO.} (112) delicately worked-out orchestral passages not only hold the threads together, but develop the characterisation. At other times the orchestra forms the foundation in the working-out of motifs upon which the voices are suffered to move freely, as in the duet between Susanna and Cherubino (Act II., 5) and in different passages of the finales, the andante 6-8 of the first finale and the first passage of the second. There are, indeed, few numbers in which the orchestra does not temporarily undertake one or the other office, in order to assist the characterisation. The orchestra is never employed in this way with better effect than in the so-called "writing-duet" (Act III., 5). At the close of the recitative the Countess dictates the title, "canzonetta sull' aria," and as soon as Susanna begins to write, the oboes and bassoons take up the ritornello, and undertake to tell, as it were, what Susanna is writing when she is silent and the Countess dictates.[44] There is a trace here of a subsequent editorial alteration. Instead of the present closing bars of recitative, which are inserted in the original score by a strange hand, there were originally quite different ones, to which the little duet in B flat major could not have immediately succeeded. They probably served as an introduction to a lively scene between the Countess and Susanna, similar to that in Beaumarchais' dialogue. This is confirmed by the first sketch of the writing-duet, which, with the title "Dopo il Duettino," only prefixes the words of the Countess as recitative: "Or via, scrivi cor mio, scrivi! gia tutto io prendo su me stessa." So close an approximation of two duets was most likely the cause of the rejection of the first, with the words of the recitative which called it forth. Detached features of the orchestral treatment, important as they may be, however, do not constitute its peculiar character; many of them had been previously and successfully attempted by other musicians. The essential point consists in the orchestra taking part, as it were, in the action, so that more often than not the instrumental parts would {THE ORCHESTRA--OVERTURE.} (113)