Critics were unanimous in their praise of the opening production of the Mozart 22 project at the Salzburg Festival 2006: the premiere of the serenata “Il rè pastore” K. 208. It was composed in early 1775 for the visit to Salzburg of Archduke Maximilian. As in “La finta giardiniera” of the previous year, it takes up the motif of the trials of love and virtue in a pastoral setting. The shepherd Aminta unexpectedly learns that he is the rightful heir to a kingdom. Initially delighted to become a king, Aminta loses his enthusiasm when he learns he must marry Tamiri instead of his beloved Elisa. Thomas Hengelbrock, the production’s director and conductor, gives eloquent voice to Mozart’s tale with his Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, which plays on original instruments (including an early “fortepiano” instead of the traditional harpsichord as continuo instrument). At 19, Mozart was no beginner, and his next work was to be “Idomeneo,” which is generally considered to be his first operatic masterpiece. In “Il rè pastore,” it is amazing how Mozart manages to infuse life into the rigid conventions of the opera seria genre. There is dramatic impact and emotional depth, for example in Aminta’s rondo “L’amerò, sarò costante” with obbligato solo violin; and there are poignant depictions of inner torment, as in Agenore’s great aria supported by four natural horns. The music is a panorama of contrasting colors, a kaleidoscope of changing moods that are given a sharp and brilliant profile in this performance. Hengelbrock underscores the youthful freshness and liveliness of the score by keeping the singers on stage during the entire performance. They change costumes and apply make-up in two curtained-off cubicles, emerging to watch their colleagues’ performances. And although the performers are always in action, the character of the production remains intimate, almost concert-like. Hengelbrock explains this from a historical viewpoint: “Our stage version guides itself on the circumstances of the premiere, which took place [in April 1775] at the Archbishop’s Residence and not in a theater.”
Il Sogno di Scipione (Mozart 22)
The genre of “Il sogno di Scipione” hovers between opera seria and oratorio. Devoid of psychological development or even dramatic conflict, it centers on Scipio, who dreams of two beautiful allegorical women: Fortuna (Fortune) and Costanza (Constancy). The two women both try to win him over. Ultimately, Scipio has to choose one, and his choice falls, unsurprisingly, on Costanza. The Mozart 22 production of “Il sogno di Scipione” (Scipio’s Dream) adds two more superlatives to the already stunning list of this project’s matchless achievements. The musical direction is in the hands of the youngest conductor of all Mozart 22 works, Robin Ticciati, born in 1983; and it is most likely the very first staged performance ever of this work, which was not given its first full-length concert premiere until 1979, at the Salzburg Mozartwoche. Based on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, like “Betulia liberata,” “Tito” and “Rè pastore,” the azione teatrale was composed between April and August 1771. Although it was intended for Archbishop Schrattenbach, he died before the work was completed. Director Michael Sturminger has devised a light and witty staging with artists from the Klagenfurt Municipal Theater. He transposes the action to what looks like a large suite in a luxury hotel. Gone are all traces of pallid allegory in the depictions of the two women: Fortuna (a warmly intoning Bernarda Bobro) is a vamp and seductress in revealing dresses; Costanza (a dazzlingly virtuoso Louise Fribo) is the sensible housewife and mother who, however, hasn’t forgotten how to turn on her man. To help guide Scipio back on the path of virtue, Sturminger has Costanza trot out the couple’s two cute little children… Musically, the work flickers with flashes of genius that prefigure the later operatic master. Already self-confident in his treatment of emotions, Mozart relishes his chance to formulate breathtaking vocal fireworks as his protagonists grapple with lust, desire and virtue. Thanks to Blagoj Nacoski, the title role stands out for its brilliance and clarity. British conductor Robin Ticciati leads the chorus of the Klagenfurt Municipal Theater and the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra with irrepressible verve.
Irrfahrten I: La Finta Semplice (Mozart 22)
The Irrfahrten (Odysseys) trilogy comprises three independent, self-contained performances that are motivically interwoven into a compelling whole through a great variety of references. Various artistic genres – music, theater, dance and video – are fused into an original form of music theater that could very well point to the future. The trilogy was conceived by Joachim Schlömer, a noted dancer, choreographer and director. He sees his project as the “odyssey of an artist from external control to self-determination.” (Schlömer) This concerns not only Mozart himself, but also the artist in general, and, by extension, everyone who has overcome a crisis in their life to achieve their personal freedom. At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart’s first opera buffa, “La finta semplice” (The Make-Believe Simpleton), a full-length opera with commedia dell’arte-style characters. “The music,” says Schlömer, “tells of wanting something – even if the characters still don’t really know what they want.” The second Odyssey, “Abendempfindung” (Evening Sensation), a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, “Rex tremendus” presents a thought-provoking combination of two opera buffa fragments, “Lo sposo deluso” and “L’oca del Cairo,” along with various unfinished pieces and fragments from Mozart’s last work, the Requiem. It represents the artist’s ultimate liberation from the restrictions and conventions of society, his farewell from the world, in total darkness… Schlömer on his Odysseys: “It is about the path the artist follows from his entrance into adult life to a period of artistic crisis, comparable to the midlife crisis we all go through, and on to a fragmentation and liberation from all interpretation of the artist’s activity.” Irrfahrten / Odysseys is one of the most illuminating productions of the Mozart 22 cycle, one that makes Mozart’s genius shine in all of its facets.
Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) (Mozart 22)
Anna Netrebko, Christine Schäfer, Dorothea Röschmann, Bo Skovhus and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic – this “Marriage of Figaro” is a feast for musical gourmets. Of all the Mozart 22 productions of the Salzburg Festival’s Mozart year 2006, “Figaro” is no doubt the most popular, both among connoisseurs and amateurs – perhaps because it is above all a triumph of superior music-making. The story is well-known, the work is fast-moving, witty, touching and vibrant. Based on a politically and socially explosive comedy by Beaumarchais, but toned down by Mozart’s librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, it treats the topic of love, lust and justice among the various classes: nobility, indentured servants and the rising bourgeoisie. The joy of the work lies above all in its characters, which are perhaps the most “human” human beings to be found on the opera stage. Harnoncourt’s musical concept is meticulously worked-out, interpreted with a wealth of subtle nuances and, with respect to the madness of the romantic intrigues unfolding on the stage, nothing less than thought-provoking. Director Claus Guth’s staging fits the music like a glove: there are no farcical elements or slapstick; he takes each and every character seriously. He sees the ensembles and arias as emotional rooms that are to be opened by the director. Everything takes place in Count Almaviva’s summer residence – a place devoid of furnishings but filled with erotic energy. The most erotically charged role in the opera is that of Cherubino, and with Christine Schäfer, Cherubino became the fulcrum of the performance, a luminous, dazzlingly virtuoso singer and consistently poignant actress – perhaps the vocal discovery of the Mozart 22 project. The celebrated Anna Netrebko proves her greatness by harnessing her sensual soprano to make it fit seamlessly into the ensemble. Bo Skovhus and Dorothea Röschmann give realistic and intense accounts of the Count and Countess as they movingly depict their “scenes of a marriage.” Finally, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo employs his powerful bass baritone to give authority to the work’s title role.
Lucio Silla (Mozart 22)
Following the success of his “Mitridate,” Mozart received another commission to write an opera for Milan, a dramma per musica in three acts. He began working on “Lucio Silla” in late 1772, while on his third trip to Italy. Although the rehearsals were fraught with problems caused by recalcitrant singers, the work was nevertheless given 26 performances to full houses. Yet despite this success, “Lucio Silla” was the last opera Mozart wrote for Italy. “I see it as a kind of political thriller, the story of a plot against an inhuman regime. […] ‘Lucio Silla’ is, in my opinion, one of the few truly political pieces by Mozart.” Director Jürgen Flimm conceived his production accordingly, delivering a taut and often breathtakingly raw interpretation of the story of the dictator Lucio Silla. Although the action unfolds in ancient Rome, Flimm has transposed it to Mozart’s day, when absolutistic monarchs still held sway over Europe. Coveting the betrothed of the senator Cecilio, the dictator Silla exiles the senator and declares him dead. Giunia, however, wards off Silla’s advances and is happily reunited with Cecilio when he secretly returns. But Silla refuses to yield and tries to force Giunia to give herself to him. She refuses once, she refuses twice… Then Silla publicly announces their wedding. To prevent the wedding and end Silla’s tyranny, Cecilio reappears in public and tries to assassinate Silla. The plot fails but – as one would expect in an opera seria – the dictator has a sudden change of mind and brings the story to a happy end. Jürgen Flimm’s staging is a coproduction with Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, which also contributed its chorus and orchestra to the Salzburg adaptation. The stellar cast is dominated by Roberto Saccà as Silla, Annick Massis as Giunia and Monica Bacelli as Cecilio – all three at home on the world’s greatest stages such as the Vienna State Opera, Barcelona’s Liceu, London’s Covent Garden Opera, La Scala, Palais Garnier…
Mitridate, Re di Ponto (Mozart 22)
Widely acclaimed as one of the absolute top productions of the Mozart 22 cycle in Salzburg, “Mitridate” has everything going for it. It is a wild story of erotic desire, jealousy, intrigue and betrayal; a dramatically focused staging that does full justice to the conflicted relations; a cast of singers who are all of the highest caliber; and a sensational musical ensemble led by a singularly powerful and charismatic conductor. Indeed, the real star of this production is conductor Marc Minkowski, who is famed for his recordings of Baroque music with his ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre – Grenoble, who also play on this recording. It is nothing less than phenomenal how Minkowski storms into the score and unleashes raw emotions encompassing everything from happiness and tenderness to madness and murderous jealousy. As he plumbs the depths of this music, he carries his singers on his orchestra’s richly nuanced fabric, whips them along impetuously, and envelops them in opulent sounds. In stage director Günter Krämer and his set designer Jürgen Bäckmann, Minkowski found partners on a par with his vibrant talent. Through cleverly placed mirrors, Krämer reveals what’s going on “behind the scenes” at the same time that we see what is occurring before our eyes – a breathtaking layering of the events that illuminates the characters’ psychology in a subtle manner. “Mitridate” is the first major opera seria of the 14-year-old Mozart, and its plot typical of this genre, which had its heyday in the mid to late 18th century. King Mitridate, blinded by his lust for power, believes his sons Farnace and Sifare, as well as his betrothed Aspasia, are betraying him. He wants to put them to the test by staging his own death. The two sons, who want to go their own ways, are thus forced to oppose their father, even as they long for his love. Mitridate is ready to sacrifice all three – but in the end, he is the only one who dies.
Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Mozart 22)
The plot couldn’t be simpler: the Spanish nobleman Belmonte must free his fiancée Konstanze, her English maid Blonde and Belmonte’s servant Pedrillo from the clutches of the Turkish Bassa, or Pasha, Selim. Belmonte must sneak into the pasha’s seraglio and sneak back out again, all the while eluding and outsmarting Osmin, the overseer of the harem. With his Salzburg production of 2003, young Norwegian director Stefan Herheim raised a storm of controversy that continued to crackle in 2006, when the production was revised for the Mozart 22 cycle. The controversy was largely due to the fact that Herheim transposed the events to the inner world of the human psyche. The harem is no longer a real harem, but a psychological place of longing and desire, enticing and yet threatening at the same time. The entire exotic, Janissary scenery gives way to the more familiar images of one’s own sexual urges and impulses. The production revolves around the question: how does a man get a woman? To get to the bottom of this age-old question, Herheim shows how men and women try to seek happiness together and fail since they are caught in conventions and subservient to their inner demons – illustrated here by Osmin as priest and devil. “It is a genesis, the beginning of all beginnings, when man is separated into two sexes, is disoriented, and from then on seeks to return to his original form in ever new constellations,” explains Herheim. Giving powerful accounts of their difficult roles is a top-notch cast dominated by Laura Aikin as Konstanze and Charles Castronovo as Belmonte. With her elegiac Andante arias, Aikin is an oasis of calm and nobility. Castronovo suggests his own vulnerability with his wonderfully lyrical timbre. At the head of the Mozarteum Orchestra, Ivor Bolton once again confirms his reputation as a dynamic and sensitive interpreter of Baroque and Classical operas. The clarity and wisdom of his music-making provide an astute contrast to the turbulent activity on stage. Indeed, the marriage of orchestra and voices evokes the image of the stage of life: on the surface, everything is in motion; below, order rules – but it is an order that is often lost in everyday life.
Zaide & Adama (Mozart 22)
An abducted beauty in a harem, a noble rescuer from Europe, a merciless Muslim ruler – aren’t these the ingredients for Mozart’s “Die Entführung aus dem Serail”? Yes, but not only. They are also found in the fragment of a “Turkish” opera that Mozart wrote shortly before the “Entführung,” a work that was later given the title “Zaide.” The fragmentary nature and splendid music of “Zaide” have long stimulated enterprising artists to attempt completions or collages to make the work performable. For the Mozart 22 project, Salzburg Festival director Peter Ruzicka commissioned the Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin to produce a new work that stage director Claus Guth would then interweave with the “Zaide” fragment. In “Zaide” we have two lovers, Zaide and Gomatz, held prisoner in a harem in an imaginary past, somewhere in the Middle East… In “Adama” we have two lovers, a Woman and a Man, caught in the irreconcilable religious and political conflicts of today’s Middle East. Mozart’s themes are imprisonment, doomed love, culture clash and despotism; Czernowin’s are the same, but transported into our time. She tells of the love between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, a partnership doomed to fail in a world torn by violence. Czernowin approached her task with great reverence for Mozart’s work. ” Adama establishes a counterpoint to Zaide’s plot,” she says. “My contributions to this new ‘complete work’ are not traditional arias, but often fragments, musical pieces that are cut in the middle. […] Mozart’s excerpts alternate with elements from Adama and sometimes overlap as well: then the two scores are almost synchronized. In that sense, Adama is a mirror of Mozart’s Zaide.” While Ivor Bolton entices a fresh and spirited rendition of the Mozart score from the Mozarteum Orchestra in the pit, Johannes Kalitzke and the Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik give a sharp and precise reading of “Adama” at the back of the stage. An outstanding cast gives performances of equal dramatic and vocal strength. Commenting on this experiment’s place in the Mozart 22 project, the Financial Times’ Shirley Apthorp declared that “Zaide – Adama stands out for its bold originality.”
Irrfahrten II: Abendempfindung (Mozart 22)
The Irrfahrten (Odysseys) trilogy comprises three independent, self-contained performances that are motivically interwoven into a compelling whole through a great variety of references. Various artistic genres – music, theater, dance and video – are fused into an original form of music theater that could very well point to the future. The trilogy was conceived by Joachim Schlömer, a noted dancer, choreographer and director. He sees his project as the “odyssey of an artist from external control to self-determination.” (Schlömer) This concerns not only Mozart himself, but also the artist in general, and, by extension, everyone who has overcome a crisis in their life to achieve their personal freedom. At the beginning of the trilogy is the twelve-year-old Mozart’s first opera buffa, “La finta semplice” (The Make-Believe Simpleton), a full-length opera with commedia dell’arte-style characters. “The music,” says Schlömer, “tells of wanting something – even if the characters still don’t really know what they want.” The second Odyssey, “Abendempfindung” (Evening Sensation), a pasticcio of Mozart arias, songs, instrumental pieces (including some for the rare and evocative glass harmonica) and letters. The great Ann Murray is the featured performer here. The third Odyssey, “Rex tremendus” presents a thought-provoking combination of two opera buffa fragments, “Lo sposo deluso” and “L’oca del Cairo,” along with various unfinished pieces and fragments from Mozart’s last work, the Requiem. It represents the artist’s ultimate liberation from the restrictions and conventions of society, his farewell from the world, in total darkness… Schlömer on his Odysseys: “It is about the path the artist follows from his entrance into adult life to a period of artistic crisis, comparable to the midlife crisis we all go through, and on to a fragmentation and liberation from all interpretation of the artist’s activity.” Irrfahrten / Odysseys is one of the most illuminating productions of the Mozart 22 cycle, one that makes Mozart’s genius shine in all of its facets.
Apollo et Hyacinthus (Mozart 22)
Mozart was eleven years old when he wrote “Apollo et Hyacinthus” K. 38 and “Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots” (The Obligation to Observe the First Commandment) K. 35 in 1767. Their brevity and contemporaneity made it seem fitting to entrust them to one director for their stage interpretations within the Mozart 22 project. John Dew, known and admired for his rediscoveries of long-neglected works and his highly imaginative productions, has created a semi-ironic framework that ideally suits the two little pieces. They are given a graceful musical accompaniment by the Symphony Orchestra of the Mozarteum University. “Apollo et Hyacinthus” is Mozart’s very first operatic venture and was commissioned soon after the successful performance of “Schuldigkeit.” “Apollo” is a Latin intermezzo that was intended as an insert between the prologue and the five-act school drama “Clementia Croesi.” Curiously, it already contains many of the themes that would recur in Mozart’s later operas: disguise, intrigue, transformation, self-discovery… The plot concerns Zephyrus’ love for Melia, who is about to marry Apollo. In his jealousy, Zephyrus gravely wounds Hyacinthus with a discus and, to have Apollo banished, accuses Apollo of murder. Apollo, who saw Zephyrus throw the discus, turns the true culprit into a wind. The dying Hyacinthus reveals the truth and Apollo consoles the mourning family by changing their son into a flower. “Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots” is an allegorical drama in three parts that was first performed in the Archbishop’s residence in March 1767. Mozart composed the first part. The work is an offshoot of the 17th-century tradition of the Jesuit school drama in which the characters are purely symbolic. Here, the “lukewarm Christian” becomes the object of contention between two authorities. Worldliness tempts him with the pleasures of the senses; a trio formed by Justice, Mercy and Christian Spirit urges him to choose an active Christian life. Mozart included such subtle musical touches as a 3/4 dance rhythm and merry woodwinds deployed by Worldliness and an alto trombone that summons the hero to the Last Judgment – an instrumental color that will appear prominently in “Don Giovanni”…