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Every device was resorted to that could lend novelty to the scenes; in Carlo Noci's Cintia the heroine returns home disguised as a boy to find her lover courting another nymph; in Francesco Contarini's Finta Fiammetta , on the other hand, the plot turns on the courtship of Delfide by her lover Celindo in girl's attire; while in Orazio Serono's Fida Armilla we have the annual human sacrifice to a monstrous serpent all of which later became familiar themes in pastoral drama and romance.
It follows the lines of Miller's Singspiele closely, but shows more originality, especially in the orchestration, than 'La Finta Semplice. The plot of the little work is an imitation of Rousseau's 'Devin du Village, telling of the quarrels of a rustic couple, and their reconciliation through the good offices of a travelling conjurer.
At length he received a commission from the Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian III., to write an opera buffa for the Carnival of 1775, "La finta Giardiniera." Munich, Dec. 28, 1774. My Dearest Sister, I have my reasons for this. Munich, Dec. 30, 1774. I BEG my compliments to Roxalana, who is to drink tea this evening with the Sultan, All sorts of pretty speeches to Madlle.
Salzburg imitated Vienna, and Vienna, in spite of Gluck, was still Italian in its sympathies, so far at any rate as opera seria was concerned. Mozart wrote his first opera, 'La Finta Semplice, for Vienna, when he was twelve years old. It would have been performed in 1768 but for the intrigues of jealous rivals and the knavery of an impresario.
It is of course an extraordinary work when the composer's age is taken into account, but intrinsically differs little from the thousand and one comic operas of the period, Mozart's first German opera, 'Bastien und Bastienne, though written after 'La Finta Semplice, was performed before it. It was given in 1768 in a private theatre belonging to Dr. Anton Meszmer, a rich Viennese bourgeois.
Mozart's next four operas were, for the most part, hastily written 'Mitridate, Re di Ponto' and 'Lucio Silla' for Milan, "La Finta Giardiniera' for Munich, and 'Il Re Pastore' for Salzburg. They adhere pretty closely to the conventional forms of the day, and, in spite of the beauty of many of the airs, can scarcely be said to contain much evidence of Mozart's incomparable genius.
On his return to Munich, after composing a comic opera in the Italian style, "La Finta Giardiniera," which had a great success, young Mozart, who had been very shabbily treated by Archbishop Hieronymus of whose spiteful conduct we shall hear more hereafter the successor of Sigismund, determined to resign his situation in the court band, and to set out on his travels again, giving concerts from place to place, and everywhere looking out for some suitable appointment that might afford him a permanent income.
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