ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE OPERA IN LONDON. 220 



cotemporary success than that of appealing too largely to the 

 higher faculties of his audience. This was the reason that both 

 Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni were at first only partially 

 successful ; the music was too scientific and too original to be at 

 once appreciated by a superficial audience. But Mozart had obsta- 

 cles still more formidable to encounter in the folly and presumption 

 of Shikaneder, the manager for whose benefit the Zauberflote was 

 composed, who was in the constant habit of erasing the best parts 

 of operas written for his theatre, and substituting such passages as 

 pleased his own bad taste. IMozart was too conscious of his own 

 powers and of the dignity of the art to allow the unity and harmo- 

 ny of his works to be thus marred ; but we are 'informed that his 

 patience was occasionally put to severe trial by his presumptuous 

 critic, who actually obliged him to compose the duet La dove prenda 

 five times before it could obtain his approbation. In this manner 

 was the great master hampered by his audience and by an ignorant 

 censor, and, as a natural consequence of this tyranny, some of the 

 airs are too trivial, and the construction of the concerted pieces too 

 simple and superficial. But there are parts where the force of his 

 genius shines undebased by meaner matter ; such are the march and 

 chorusses of Egyptian priests, and the effect of the choral melody 

 sung by the men in armour. The manner in which the wicked, 

 revengeful character of the Queen of Night is pourtrayed, is another 

 masterly effort. With the mention of the Italian beauty of the 

 melody Qual suono ohime, I must conclude this imperfect notice of a 

 work which the public ought to be allowed an opportunity of criti- 

 cising for themselves. 



La Clemenza di Tito is an heroic opera constructed on the model 

 of the grand musical tragedies of Gluck, a composer who, unknown 

 and unhonoured though his name may be in this country, was the 

 first who broke the conventional trammels which shackled his prede- 

 cessors, and who, by working on more profound principles, rendered 

 music really dramatic. Mozart ever expressed for his works the high- 

 est regard, and acknowledged that from the study of them he had 

 not only reaped signal benefit, but that they had served as models 

 for the construction of his own tragic operas. The enlarged re- 

 sources of the art at this period, produced in great measure by fol- 

 lowing out the principles of Gluck, enabled our author to surpass 

 his model. Tito combines the majesty of Gluck with more grace 

 and expression ; there is less of instrumental colouring than in his 

 other operas, but the melodies are on a grander scale. The disad- 

 vantages arising from the undramatic character of the text are over- 



