96.

Mannheim, Feb. 28, 1778.

I hope to receive the arias next Friday or Saturday, although in your last letter you made no further mention of them, so I don’t know whether you sent them off on the 22d by the post-carriage.  I hope so, for I should like to play and sing them to Madlle.  Weber.  I was yesterday at Raafl’s to take him an aria that I lately wrote for him [Kochel, No. 295].  The words are—­“Se al labbro mio non credi, nemica mia.”  I don’t think they are by Metastasio.  The aria pleased him beyond all measure.  It is necessary to be very particular with a man of this kind.  I chose these words expressly, because he had already composed an aria for them, so of course he can sing it with greater facility, and more agreeably to himself.  I told him to say honestly if it did not suit his voice or please him, for I would alter it if he wished, or write another.  “Heaven forbid!” said he; “it must remain just as it is, for nothing can be more beautiful.  I only wish you to curtail it a little, for I am no longer able to sustain my voice through so long a piece.”  “Most gladly,” I answered, “as much as ever you please; I made it purposely rather long, for it is always easy to shorten, but not so easy to lengthen.”  After he had sung the second part, he took off his spectacles, and, looking at me deliberately, said, “Beautiful! beautiful!  This second part is quite charming;” and he sang it three times.  When I went away he cordially thanked me, while I assured him that I would so arrange the aria that he would certainly like to sing it.  I think an aria should fit a singer as accurately as a well-made coat.  I have also, for practice, arranged the air “Non so d’ onde viene” which has been so charmingly composed by Bach.  Just because I know that of Bach so well, and it pleases me and haunts my ear, I wished to try if, in spite of all this, I could succeed in writing an aria totally unlike the other.  And, indeed, it does not in the very least resemble it.  I at first intended this aria for Raaff; but the beginning seemed to me too high for Raaff’s voice, but it pleased me so much that I would not alter it; and from the orchestral accompaniment, too, I thought it better suited to a soprano.  I therefore resolved to write it for Madlle.  Weber.  I laid it aside, and took the words “Se al labbro” for Raaff.  But all in vain, for I could write nothing else, as the first air always came back into my head; so I returned to it, with the intention of making it exactly in accordance with Madlle.  Weber’s voice.  It is andante sostenuto, (preceded by a short recitative,) then follows the other part, Nel seno destarmi, and after this the sostenuto again.  When it was finished, I said to Madlle.  Weber, “Learn the air by yourself, sing it according to your own taste, then let me hear it, and I will afterwards tell you candidly what pleases and what displeases me.”