PARTISAN REVIEW
Ideals can be cheapened, and doubtless they are by Schikaneder's
doggerel. Ideals can also be raised to a unique personal incandescence,
and that they are by Mozart's drama.
The four great operas of Mozart all show music's great power
to determine dramatic form.
T he Magic Flute
and
The Marriage
of Figaro
show further how such dramatic form can articulate a
consistent, profound action. In these masterpieces, all Mozart's elo–
quence and strength, his faultless response to action, his control over
the dramaturgical wealth of the ensemble, his sensitivity to character
in the aria, his famous ingenuity, sympathy, delicacy, and humor,
and above all his superb sense of artistic form on every level-all
these are fired to cast a single dramatic conception. One cannot very
well describe such a conception without lapsing into platitudes; one
can find words more easily for operas like
Don Giovanni
and
COSl
fan tulle,
wherein the dramatic ideas are half-formed or unresolved,
despite very great beauties. But where the dramatist has been suc–
cessful, the idea cannot be defined except as the work itself. The
meaning of a complete work of art will be manifested only in the
medium that realizes, consummates, or creates it. The vindication of
opera as drama comes in such occasional, unique triumphs; and
among these, Mozart has left our most precious examples.
