The tenor part of Titus displays most clearly the influence of the old opera seria, Metastasio's words, consisting of general axioms, being retained for all his three airs (6, 8, 20). The two first are short and melodious, but not deeply suggestive;[ 47 ] the last retains the old aria form with a long middle movement and return to the first allegro, together with bravura passages quite in the old style. The report that the tenor Baglione found that Mozart and not an Italian composer had been engaged to write the opera, and that they quarrelled in consequence,[ 48 ] is the more improbable since Baglione was the same singer for whom Mozart had written Don Ottavio.
Servilia's air (2) indicated, after the old style, with tempo di menuetto, the two airs for Annius (13, 17)[ 49 ] and that for Publius (16), are all both in design and treatment proper to secondary parts, without musical significance or individual characterisation. The main weight, therefore, fell according to custom upon the two prime donne, who played Sextus and Vitellia. The fact that the parts of the lovers, Sextus and Annius, were soprano, was an objectionable relic of the old opera seria, and that Sextus should have been played by a female and not a male soprano was a progress indeed for humanity, but not for the drama. True characterisation is impossible when a woman in man's clothes plays the lover, and the case is not improved by the weak, womanish character of Sextus. His passion for Vitellia becomes a thing contrary to nature, and the deeper the dramatic conception of the part the more repulsively does this appear. Of necessity, therefore, vocal execution comes to the foreground. The first air of Sextus, "Parto I" (9), fails at once in dramatic interest from his having already repeatedly assured Vitellia of his blind obedience, if she will only bestow upon TITUS—SEXTUS. him one glance of love. The musical design and working-out are those of a grand bravura air. Tenderness, tinged with only an occasional dash of heroism, prevails throughout the two movements (adagio 3-4 and allegro 4-4). An obbligato clarinet goes with the voice, and the strictly concertante treatment of this instrument gives its chief interest to the musical working-out of the song. Considered as a concert air which treats the given situation only as a general foundation for the development of musical forces, it is of extraordinary beauty, the melodies being noble and expressive, the sound-effects of the voice and clarinet admirable, and the only concessions to brilliancy of effect the triplet passages and the long-drawn-out conclusion.
The second air (19) is more definitely characterised by the situation. Sextus, having with difficulty withstood Titus's friendly entreaties, is overpowered by his feelings when the Emperor turns coldly away, and leaves him to be led to death. This air is also in two movements; Sextus expresses his grief for the loss of Titus's confidence in an adagio, and his despair at the death awaiting him in an allegro. Metastasio's text expressed only the latter feeling, and Mazzola formed the first part of the air out of the words of the dialogue.[ 50 ] The expression of the first movement is fervent and true, and the softness characterising it belongs to the character and the situation; the second movement expresses a certain amount of passion in some parts, but is as a whole wanting in energy, and its chief motif, even for a female Sextus, is too soft and tender. Schaul adduces as a proof of Mozart's frequent sins against good sense that Sextus, tortured by remorse, should express his agony to Titus in a rondo.[ 51 ] "If it were a rondo by Pleyel or Clementi," remarks C. M. von Weber in answer,[ 52 ] "it might indeed produce a ludicrous effect; but let the critic only note the heartfelt fervour of the song, the depth and beauty of expression in such places as 'pur saresti men LABOUR AND POVERTY. severo, se vedesti questo cor, and all such petty fault-finding will cease to be heard." Mozart had originally sketched another allegro, the first bars of which, still existing in autograph, are rather more decided in character:—[See Page Image]
The page ends here, and the present allegro is begun on a fresh one; it cannot be determined whether the first allegro was finished or only commenced, but in any case the instrumentation was not worked out.
Vitellia is the only character in the opera displaying anything like passion or strength of feeling. The singer Maria Marchetti (b. 1767), married to the tenor Fantozzi in 1788, had acquired great renown in Italy and Milan, whence she was summoned to Prague; she possessed a fine, full voice, and excellent execution and action, enhanced by a pleasing exterior and dignified bearing.[ 53 ] In her first air (2) there is indeed no passion, Metastasio's words, consisting of frigid moral observations, scarcely allowing of any characteristic musical expression. The air is divided into the traditional two movements, neither of them distinguished by originality, TITUS—VITELLIA. and even the bravura part is insignificant; the whole effect is so dry and commonplace as involuntarily to suggest Süssmayr. Vitellia's second air, on the contrary (22, 23), is the gem of the opera, and incontestably one of the most beautiful songs ever written. At the decisive moment Vitellia rises to the resolution of renouncing her dearest hopes, of sacrificing her very life to the nobler instincts of her soul, which have too long been made to yield to her ambitious striving after false greatness.
The musical characterisation grasps this situation, and develops from it a psychological picture complete in itself, and only loosely connected with the earlier conception of Vitellia's character in the opera. The song seems thus to be detached from the framework of the opera, and to belong rather to the province of concert music. This idea is strengthened by the design, treatment, and compass of the two movements, as well as by the introduction of the obbligato basset-horn, which is treated so as to accord with the voice part, without any brilliant bravura.[ 54 ] Every element of the song is blended into such perfect unity, such charm of melody, such beauty of musical form; the sharp contrasts of the different motifs are so admirably expressive of the general character of which they form the details, and the whole work is so permeated by the breath of poetic genius, that our satisfaction in contemplating a perfect work of art leads us to forget how it stands forth as something foreign to the context.
Even the introductory recitative is a masterpiece of telling expression, and in the air itself the noble beauty of the different motifs is tinged with a sadness amounting to gloom, but so sublime as to inspire the same emotions with which we gaze at the Niobe. The ensembles with which the opera is provided are only in part of any dramatic significance, and where this is wanting the musical interest also suffers; the duets especially are not important either in length or LABOUR AND POVERTY. substance. Passing over the duettino (3) between Sextus and Annius, which became popular owing to its easy and pleasing tone, but which in no way corresponds to the character of an heroic opera, we may notice the first duet between Sextus and Vitellia as better defined, especially in the first movement; although even here the wish to attract is very apparent, and gains quite the upper hand in the triplet passages and easy imitations of the allegro. An expression of tender feeling is more appropriate to the short duet between Annius and Servilia, and the loveliness of the music makes up for the absence of tragic seriousness.
The three terzets are better placed, and more suitable to their dramatic situations, but even they fail to elicit dramatic contrasts by giving to each character an equal and characteristic share in the piece. Thus, in the first terzet, Vitellia alone is inspired with lively emotion, Annius and Publius being mere passive spectators. It is at the moment When she has dispatched Sextus to the murder of Titus that she is informed of the Emperor's choice of her as his consort; in vain she strives to recall Sextus, she feels that she herself is the destroyer of her happiness. An agitated violin passage, with rapid changes of harmony intensified by suspensions, expresses the excitement and consternation to which she gives vent in detached and broken exclamations; but the calm observation of the two others—
Ah, come un gran contento,
Come confonde un cor!—
chills the expression of Vitellia's emotion, so that the combination of the voices, instead of producing a climax as it ought, weakens the passion of the movement and prevents its rising to more than a momentary prominence. The second terzet (14) was suggested by an air of Metastasio, "Se mai senti spirarti sul volto," which was a favourite subject with the old composers.[ 55 ] It begins with the tender TITUS—ENSEMBLES. farewell of Sextus to Vitellia, stricken with shame and dismay. This contrast would have made an excellent opportunity for musical effect if Publius had supplied the connecting link by the addition of a new and important element in the situation; instead of this, he remains a mere passive spectator, and does not increase the pathos of the situation at all. Sextus gives the tone here, as Vitellia in the previous terzet, and the tender softness of his farewell scarcely allows expression to the true significance of the situation; otherwise, however, this terzet is superior to the first in the freer development of the voice parts.'" The third terzet (18) has a beautiful and expressive first movement, but its second movement is too slight in design and too little worked out for its situation.
