2 opera duets

S’io non moro a questi accenti from Idomeneo K366 (1781)

Prenderò quel brunettino from Così fan tutte (1790)

Duets are the very heart of opera. Arias might be more spectacular but they tend to hold up the action, whereas duets are actually part of it - declarations of love, more often than not, or of some other mutually held sentiment. “S’io non more a questi accenti” in the third act of Idomeneo follows a recitative in which Idamante (originally a castrato part) and Ilia - representatives of opposing sides in the political conflict that has so far kept them apart - first confess their true feelings for each other. Although the duet was omitted from the first performance in Munich in 1781, in its youthful freshness and spontaneously developing lyricism it is an essential reflection of their vulnerability to forces beyond their control.

In Così fan tutte Fiordiligi and her sister Dorabella are vulnerable too - to the intrigues of the old cynic who has set up an embarrassing situation for them and, not least, their own gullibility. Believing their lovers to be away on military duty and meeting two apparently new suitors, they fail to see through their diguise and, in deciding which of the two young men they prefer, they go for the wrong one. “Prenderò quel brunettino” is the duet from the second act where they make their choice - in music as prettily engaging as it is resourceful in applying every duet device, from parellel thirds to canon and shared cadenzas, as each looks to the other for encouragement.