 |
|
|
|
|
Test/Übersicht |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Mozart and his operas |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Mozart and his operas
Music was Mozart's passion. Operas were Mozart's musical passion. His enhancement and development of the opera had a tremendous impact on the genre as a whole. During Mozart's time operas were difficult to understand, not very pleasing and generally confusing. Today they are pure pleasure for all opera buffs.
Mozart's contribution to the opera genre was considerable up to the age of twenty: he had composed two full-length comic Italian operas (opera buffa) and a short German opera, two full-length serious Italian operas (opera seria) and various short plays by Pietro Metastasio set to music.
La finta giardiniera and Il rè pastore (1775), still lacking the necessary richness of invention in their dramatic interpretation, mark the end of his early creative phase. Although the music was already very rich in content, the two operas largely belong to a theater world mastered by vocalists.
During his trip to Paris Mozart noticed which type of opera audiences enjoyed most: not Gluck's intellectual "reform opera", not the affected opera seria, but the opera buffa, which he called "the comic opera". Mozart wanted to develop a new type of opera that did away with rigid rules and mixed the different opera styles in order to achieve an exciting musical theater.
At the time of Idomeneo“ (1780) Mozart became increasingly impatient with his librettist, with opera conventions and with the vocalists and their shortcomings in general. Idomeneo is of such an incessant intensity and traditional dramaturgical forms were excluded to the greatest extent possible. Many consider it the best opera seria ever written but it failed to become popular with the public.
Mozart tried to win the favor of the Viennese audience with the Abduction from the Seraglio. He played with the popular opera forms and created a "strange" mixture that caused a great deal of confusion at its premiere in 1782. The German text was unfamiliar, the leading role was a speaking part without a single aria and the opera was marked by an overabundance of motifs and melodies as well as a highly complicated instrumentation. Nevertheless, it was a brilliant success.
Although musically his virtual firework of inspiration was enchanting, he did not come close to the masterworks of the three Da Ponte operas in terms of drama. Mozart turned to the Italian opera buffa, whose characteristic feature is the long finale with the intrigues and excitement. He significantly expanded them without giving up the standard conventions. All three operas, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte, are marked by dynamic movement combined with an unusual frequency of the ensembles as well as the abridgement of the arias, though retaining their brilliant character. The gap between the comic and the serious world had been bridged.
Beaumarchais' Le mariage de Figaro was rejected by the nobility because of its disrespectful portrayal of aristocratic behavior. Mozart took advantage of a favorable moment and his li-brettist Da Ponte assured the Emperor that all of the offensive passages had been deleted. The premiere was preceded by an opera contest arranged by the Emperor between Mozart and the Emperor's Kapellmeister, Antonio Salieri. Mozart felt the "hostile" atmosphere of the imperial court opera. Figaro was performed nine times but did not meet with immense success.
In 1787 Prague commissioned Mozart to write an opera. Mozart had conducted The Marriage of Figaro in Prague and was celebrated as never before by an appreciative Czech public. Mozart was absolutely free in his choice of text, Da Ponte suggested Don Giovanni. The opera was premiered at Prague's National Theater in 1787 and invariably won acclaim. It was premiered in Vienna in May 1788 but failed to achieve the acclaim it had received in Prague. The Vienna audience preferred the "correct" Italian opera with which it was familiar.
Così fan tutte is one of Mozart's last masterpieces for the stage. Once again Mozart drew from the great diversity of the current opera genre, producing Così fan tutte as an opera buffa, La Clemenza di Tito as an opera seria and The Magic Flute as a German Singspiel.
Così fan tutte (freely translated as "All women do it") – a tale of women's infidelity – was performed at the Burgtheater in 1790. It had been commissioned by Emperor Joseph II., who could not attend due to an illness and died shortly thereafter. The opera was not very successful and Mozart had lost his most influential patron.
Mozart worked on two operas during his final year: on The Magic Flute for the Vienna Folk Theater for a longer period of time and prior to finishing the former under pressure on La Clemenza di Tito, a work commissioned for the coronation of Leopold II as king of Bohemia. Whereas La Clemenza di Tito was found to be conventional and austere, The Magic Flute was distinguished by a rich vocal and instrumental texture. Both works marked a mysterious end to his theater career. Tito leaves unanswered what an opera it could have become. The Magic Flute lets us wonder what direction Mozart's opera style would have taken if he had not died.
Mozart's dramas:
1766 Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots K. 35
1767 Apollo and Hyacinth K. 38
1768 Bastien and Bastienne K. 50
1768 La finta semplice K. 51
1770 Mitridate, rè di Ponto K. 87
1771 Ascanio in Alba K. 111
1772 Il sogno di Scipione K. 126
1772 Lucio Silla K. 135
1774 La finta giardiniera K. 196
1775 Il Re pastore K. 208
1781 Idomeneo, Re di Creta K. 366
1782 The Abduction from the Seraglio K. 384
1786 The Impressario K. 486
1786 Le nozze di Figaro K. 492
1787 Don Giovanni K. 527
1790 Così fan tutte K. 588
1791 The Magic Flute K. 620
1791 La Clemenza di Tito K. 621
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Feedback |
Print | E-mail |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
