Ama Deus

Loved by God, he may have been, yet Mozart in turn imbues the lowlier characters within his operas with life and charm. Tributes to the professed genius of Salzburg are popping up all over the social media shop today to mark the composer's birthday. Mine is nothing new, but, confronted by the anniversary, I thought of a fleeting moment in one of Mozart's operas and I wanted to share it again. It's at the beginning of Act IV of Le nozze di Figaro. Barbarina has lost Susanna's brooch, which the Count has given her. Figaro then sees it and becomes enraged with jealousy, injecting last minute jeopardy into an already tense plot. It's a trifle held by a seeming pawn, yet Mozart (and Da Ponte) give Barbarina a moment of significant tenderness and insight. Set in F minor, her aria 'L'ho perduta', brief though it may be, registers both in musico-dramatic terms – the minor sixth figurations of the melody are particularly touching – and within the structure of the opera as a whole. The choice of F minor throws the tonal plot into disarray once more, steering us off the path set to the home key of D major. It's a mere detail, insignificant compared with the radical structure of the Act II finale, for instance, but it breathes life into the drama and, just like moments in Chekhov, allows us to see lower down the pecking order and realise that not one but many stories are unfolding. Happy 258th birthday Mozart!

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