Donna Elvira:
Chi è lá
Don Giovanni:
Stelle! che vedo!
Listening to Donna Elvira converse with the two criminals, I wonder if this is good recitative. It sounds good. But is that because the singers, Teresa Berganza, Ruggiero Raimondi, and Josè Van Dam, know what to do with just a few notes? Or did Mozart chose the right few notes to repeat so frequently? I miss the
picturesque recitative we heard in Bach's canata not long ago. Not an opera singer myself, I don't know what a singer wants in recitative.
At this point in history, if I am not mistaken, recitative is about to appear in string quartets and symphonies. Is Donna Elvira's the type of recitative that is expressive or clear enough to make that leap?