FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195  
196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   >>   >|  
ly hummed 'Non so piu cosa son,' and 'Ah!' she said, 'I shall dream of love to-night!' We rose and said good-night. But when I had reached my bedroom in the Hotel de la Ville, I sat down, obstinate and unconvinced, and penned this rhapsody, which I have lately found among papers of nearly twenty years ago. I give it as it stands. III Mozart has written the two melodramas of love--the one a melo-tragedy, the other a melo-comedy. But in really noble art, Comedy and Tragedy have faces of equal serenity and beauty. In the Vatican there are marble busts of the two Muses, differing chiefly in their head-dresses: that of Tragedy is an elaborately built-up structure of fillets and flowing hair, piled high above the forehead and descending in long curls upon the shoulders; while Comedy wears a similar adornment, with the addition of a wreath of vine-leaves and grape-bunches. The expression of the sister goddesses is no less finely discriminated. Over the mouth of Comedy plays a subtle smile, and her eyes are relaxed in a half-merriment. A shadow rests upon the slightly heavier brows of Tragedy, and her lips, though not compressed, are graver. So delicately did the Greek artist indicate the division between two branches of one dramatic art. And since all great art is classical, Mozart's two melodramas, _Don Giovanni_ and the _Nozze di Figaro_, though the one is tragic and the other comic, are twin-sisters, similar in form and feature. The central figure of the melo-tragedy is Don Juan, the hero of unlimited desire, pursuing the unattainable through tortuous interminable labyrinths, eager in appetite yet never satisfied, 'for ever following and for ever foiled.' He is the incarnation of lust that has become a habit of the soul--rebellious, licentious, selfish, even cruel. His nature, originally noble and brave, has assumed the qualities peculiar to lust--rebellion, license, cruelty, defiant egotism. Yet, such as he is, doomed to punishment and execration, Don Juan remains a fit subject for poetry and music, because he is complete, because he is impelled by some demonic influence, spurred on by yearnings after an unsearchable delight. In his death, the spirit of chivalry survives, metamorphosed, it is true, into the spirit of revolt, yet still tragic, such as might animate the desperate sinner of a haughty breed. The central figure of the melo-comedy is Cherubino, the genius of love, no less insatiable, but undetermine
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195  
196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   211   212   213   214   215   216   217   218   219   220   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Tragedy

 

Comedy

 

melodramas

 

comedy

 

Mozart

 

figure

 

central

 
tragic
 

similar

 

spirit


tragedy
 

satisfied

 

appetite

 

incarnation

 
foiled
 
desire
 

classical

 

Giovanni

 

division

 

branches


dramatic

 

Figaro

 

pursuing

 

rebellious

 
unattainable
 

interminable

 

tortuous

 
unlimited
 

sisters

 

feature


labyrinths

 

defiant

 

chivalry

 

survives

 

metamorphosed

 

delight

 

unsearchable

 

spurred

 
influence
 

yearnings


revolt

 

genius

 

Cherubino

 

insatiable

 

undetermine

 

haughty

 

animate

 

desperate

 
sinner
 

demonic