Composers › Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart › Programme note
4 operatic duets
Gerald Larner wrote 2 versions of differing length — choose one below.
“Bei Männern” from Die Zauberflöte (1791)
“Crudel! perchè finora” from Le nozze di Figaro (1786)
“Il cor vi dono” from Così fan tutte (1790)
“Là ci darem la mano” from Don Giovanni (1787)
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. In Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) Pamina and Papageno are not lovers - Pamina is ultimately destined for Tamino - but, finding themselves alone in a frightening situation that neither of them understands, they take emotional refuge in their cosy “Bei Männern” duet on the joys of married love.
Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) finds little joy in married love. On the contrary, he has his greedy eye on his wife’s maid Susanna and mounts a determined campaign to win her. She, betrothed to the Count’s manservant Figaro, is no less determined that he will not succeed. As part of a plot hatched in league with the Countess to defeat him, Susanna pretends to give in and promises to meet him in the garden that evening. The Count’s first reaction in the following duet “Crudel! perchè finora” is to reproach her for holding out so long but, reassured by her promises and encouraged by a change of key from minor to major, expresses his satisfaction with her apparent change of mind, while she attempts to make the appropriate responses.
In Così fan tutte Don Alfonso refuses to believe in romantic love. Indeed, the old cynic is so convinced that it doesn’t exist that, for a bet, he arranges for Fiordiligi’s and Dorabella’s lovers, Guglielmo and Ferrando respectively, to go away, come back in disguise and seduce the other sister. At least as far as Dorabella is concerned - as Guglielmo finds when he so quickly divests her of a portrait miniature of Ferrando and replaces it with a heart-shaped pendant of his own in their charming “Il cor vi dono” duet - there is no more than token resistance.
The aristicratic Giovanni and the peasant girl Zerlina are in much the same situation in Don Giovanni as Count Almaviva and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro - except that at this stage, in their highly seductive duet “Là darem la mano,” Zerlina is entirely taken in and happy to go along with him. Fortunately for her, she soon learns better.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Così/Il cor vi dono”
“Bei Männern” from Die Zauberflöte (1791)
“Crudel! perchè finora” from Le nozze di Figaro (1786)
“Il cor vi dono” from Così fan tutte (1790)
“Là ci darem la mano” from Don Giovanni (1787)
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. In Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) Pamina and Papageno are not lovers - Pamina is ultimately destined for Tamino - but, finding themselves alone in a frightening situation that neither of them understands, they take emotional refuge in their cosy “Bei Männern” duet on the joys of married love.
Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) finds little joy in married love. On the contrary, he has his greedy eye on his wife’s maid Susanna and mounts a determined campaign to win her. She, betrothed to the Count’s manservant Figaro, is no less determined that he will not succeed. As part of a plot hatched in league with the Countess to defeat him, Susanna pretends to give in and promises to meet him in the garden that evening. The Count’s first reaction in the following duet “Crudel! perchè finora” is to reproach her for holding out so long but, reassured by her promises and encouraged by a change of key from minor to major, expresses his satisfaction with her apparent change of mind, while she attempts to make the appropriate responses.
In Così fan tutte Don Alfonso refuses to believe in romantic love. Indeed, the old cynic is so convinced that it doesn’t exist that, for a bet, he arranges for Fiordiligi’s and Dorabella’s lovers, Guglielmo and Ferrando respectively, to go away, come back in disguise and seduce the other sister. At least as far as Dorabella is concerned - as Guglielmo finds when he so quickly divests her of a portrait miniature of Ferrando and replaces it with a heart-shaped pendant of his own in their charmingly heart-fluttering duet “Il cor vi dono” - there is scarcely even token resistance.
The aristicratic Giovanni and the peasant girl Zerlina are in much the same situation in Don Giovanni as Count Almaviva and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro - except that at this stage, in their highly seductive duet “Là darem la mano,” Zerlina is entirely taken in and happy to go along with him. Fortunately for her, she soon learns better.
From Gerald Larner’s files: “Nozze/Crudel”