ABSTRACT
Lorenzo da Ponte was a well educated man; in the process of revising the play he introduced into it copious references to the myths of Roman antiquity, to the tropes of Italian pastoral poets like Tasso and Ariosto, and to the language of Dante. Three of the pastorale numbers are particularly significant; they trace out the beginning, middle, and end of this private drama: the so-called letter duet, "Deh, vieni," and the moment in that finale when Susanna and Figaro, quickly reconciled, tease the Count with the image of their concord. The imaginary garden of the pastoral exists to protect the first one, and to help bring the second to fullness. The very unreality of this green world is a guarantee of its possibility: it is merely a state of mind, called into being by a tacit understanding and defined by a nostalgic and otherworldly musical gesture.
