continuo notes

I am scanning words like ‘birbo’ and ‘vendetta’ and ‘amor mio’ and trying to place my tonic not only on the right consonant but with an appropriate biff or caress, embellish my dominant suavely or flirtatiously as Don Juan does his seduction stuff above it….It’s pupil-burning stuff. Then suddenly, towards the end of the first act, my fingers, largely forgotten as my eyes strain to read the text, have to do a marathon of noodley string crossings underneath Zerlina’s sublime entreaty to Masetto. I don’t know whether or not Ian Dury was a Mozart fan, but ‘Bati Bati’ seems to me to be a fine 18th Century version of ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick'.