MOZART AS DRAMATIST
31
Mutability is a
"necessita del core."
Alfonso does not deny feeling or
oppose it; he wishes to show only that it does not last. So he does
and wins his bets, though it is not clear that anything else has been
gained.
Don Lorenzo's task was to pull this play-within-a-play into a
total drama. There is really no question that his libretto is technically
first-rate, the intrigue smooth and elegant, the construction masterly,
the verse delightful. It begins with an amusing picture of the silly
lovers exhibiting sentiments demanded by convention: the two girls
going into raptures over locket-portraits, the boys demanding satis–
faction when Don Alfonso doubts feminine fidelity. This satisfaction
is a bet that the girls will succumb to the charms of the boys absurdly
disguised as Albanians, under strict orders of Alfonso. For some time,
conventional refusals meet conventional love-making by the Al–
banians; but then, one after another, the girls capitulate. It is of
course the asymmetries in this highly symmetrical plot that provide
the dramatic drive. Dorabella falls at once, but Fiordiligi puts up
an unexpected struggle, around which the second act comes to re–
volve. Da Ponte arranged different reactions from the boys, too, when
they learn of their betrayals: Guglielmo spiteful, Ferrando emotional
and hurt. Then at the end the masquerade is revealed to the girls,
and with much embarrassment they return to their original lovers. The
pairing-off at the end is not specified, but it seems quite clear that
the original
status quo
is to stand.
2
The thing is watertight-and that's what caused Mozart trouble.
Only a prude will object to people's changing their feelings, in what–
ever possible frame of reality (though it may seem odd that the boys
remain faithful while the girls waver). Only a pedant will object
to the compression of the action into a single day, or to the fact
that the girls do not recognize the Albanians (why should they have
2 Three reasons : first, a remark of Alfonso's as he tells the boys to marry
the girls in spite of their fickleness: "Basically you love them stiJI, your plucked
chicks"-"In fondo voi Ie amate, queste vostre cornacchie spennacchiate"-and
the boys ruefully agree. Second, returning to the original lovers is the "correct"
thing; since everybody acts on convention, until pressed, any wrench from the
usual would have to elicit some explanation. Third, the second switch is drama–
tically necessary; otherwise the whole Finale lacks point-it must do more than
just tease the girls, it must in fact teach them a lesson reflected by action. And
very funny it is, at the end, when the girls swear eternal fidelity just as they
had at their first appearance, in Act I, scene 3.
