Note 82 — Chapter XVI · ROSSINI AND HIS PERIOD.

It would be absurd to say that if Rossini had set the Marriage of Figaro to music, he would have produced a finer work than Mozart's masterpiece on the same subject; but Rossini's genius, by its comic side, is far more akin to that of Beaumarchais, than is Mozart's. Mozart has given a tender poetic character to many portions of his Marriage of Figaro, which the original comedy does not possess at all. In particular, he has so elevated the part of "Cherubino" by pure and beautiful melodies, as to have completely transformed it. It is surely no disparagement to Mozart, to say, that he took a higher view of life than Beaumarchais was capable of?

I may add, that, in comparing Rossini with Beaumarchais, it must always be remembered that the former possesses the highest dramatic talent of a serious, passionate kind—witness Otello and William Tell; whereas Beaumarchais's serious dramatic works, such as La Mère Coupable, Les Deux Amis, and Eugénie (the best of the three), are very inferior productions.