ABSTRACT
Italy was the inventress of all that is admirable both in harmony, melody and science. The sublime style sprang from her chants and other church music. The opera of Idomeneo by the same author is yet more abstruse and scientific, and not being comic or containing many graceful and intelligible arias, is still less likely to be performed on the stage and be generally admired though it will form a rich repast for the private contemplation of the student of harmony. After the preceding movement, in which Don Giovanni had prevailed on the too credulous Donna Elvira to listen to his professions of penitence and while she descends from the balcony of her house, he changes dresses with his servant, whom he obliges to pass for himself, and then frightens them away together. The music is perhaps somewhat more gay and elegant than the words seem to require.
