Pigeon English

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 296, 23 February 1945, Page 7

Pigeon English

HE other evening we met an old ‘" friend, the "Dove Song" from Mozart’s "Marriage of Figaro." Seeing this misprint in the programmes, I merely dismissed it as a likely printer’s error; when the announcer from 4YA repeated it, I laughed in an annoyed fashion; but when he continued to say it, not once or twice, but three times, no less, I began to wonder if perhaps I were the one at fault. So I tracked the song down, and after failing to find any mention of it in two articles on opera, I finally came across. this. "The Countess enters .. . she bewails the lost devotion of her husband . . . she moans, ‘Where now are those blessed moments’ (Dove sono i bei momenti)." Instead of a mental "I told so," I found myself breathing a 2 of relief at finding myself. vindicated, and I now state unequivocally, for the benefit of singers, printers, and announcers, that there is no "Dove Song" in "The Marriage of Figaro." I did find mentioned in one book of reference the sad fact that this opera has actually been produced "with music by Mozart and

alterations by Bistiop." As the latter | composer was addicted to writing songs about larks, mocking birds, and other birds, there may be some obscure reason for the persistent cropping up of an ancient error. But from now on, please, no "Dove Songs."