ABSTRACT
Goldoni's sentimental comedies provided a widely imitated model for opera buffa librettos. Opera buffa departs somewhat from Goldoni's reforms, since it can make allowance for the sympathetic portrayal of virtue in an elevated language. The appeal of works like Una cosa rara gives a measure of the vitality of the sentimental tradition on the musical stage. It is both instructive and amusing to refer to an anecdote to illustrate the effect this kind of opera had upon its audiences. Mozart made a contribution to the sentimental opera, but not in a Da Ponte work: as suggested above, rather, in Lafintagiardiniera. In Violante one finds the defining gestures of the sentimental type: refinement of feeling that leads even to madness. Countering the sentimental strategy of effacing the author to give the characters the appearance of autonomy and spontaneity, Don Alfonso exposes the theatricality of this illusion by wresting control of the stage.
