Three of the greatest opera masterpieces of all time: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Thus Do They All.

Giovanni Bietti, one of Italy’s best known and most appreciated music popularisers, tackles the three operas that Mozart wrote in collaboration with the Italian librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte.

Writing in a clear and accessible way and with the help of numerous music examples played and ‘narrated’ by the author himself, Giovanni Bietti leads us to the discovery of the dramaturgic and musical features of Mozart’s three operas. The book is written in the manner of an opera, in two ‘Acts’, punctuated with short ‘Recitativi’, sections written in a lighter style that explain the historical context, precedents, first-hand evidence and trivia. The First Act is devoted to the libretto, the musical language, the dramaturgy, the forms and Mozart’s highly original use of the orchestra. The Second Act is dedicated to the analysis of the single operas. Finally, a vast Index contains the definitions of most of the technical terms occurring in the book.

«For most composers, the libretto has always been the starting point. At first glance, everything seems quite easy: a composer chooses a libretto and sets it to music, dressing the words with music. For Mozart, however, it was the other way round: first comes the music, then the words. It is the composer who is responsible for most dramaturgic choices; it is the music that sets the ‘tone’, the rhythm, the very meaning of the drama. In his three operas, Mozart does not merely bring out the best of Da Ponte’s excellent libretti. He discovers the dramatic possibilities that were latent in the folds of the text; he reinterpretes it, he gives it a new meaning through the music. The triumph of opera theatre, the reason why this genre is unique and inimitable and is not merely prose theatre with the addition of notes, is suddenly revealed in the most spectacular way, in several crucial moments of the three operas.»