Bastien und Bastienne : K. 50 (46b) ; a one act comic opera. (Musical LP, 1976) [WorldCat.org] The E-mail message field is required. Please enter the message. E-mail Message: I thought you might be interested in this item at Title: Bastien und Bastienne : K. 50 (46b) ; a one act comic opera. Author: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Edith Mathis; Claes-Håkan Ahnsjö; Walter Berry; Leopold Hager; Mozarteum-Orchester, Publisher: [Villingen, Germany] : [Köln, Germany] : MPS ; BASF [New York, N.Y.] : Audiofidelity Enterprises, [1976] [1976] ℗1976 OCLC:5982066 The ReCaptcha terms you entered were incorrect. Please try to match the 2 words shown in the window, or try the audio version.

Backstage at Utah Opera | The Singspiel and Mozart Home > Productions > Abduction >The Singspiel and Mozart The Singspiel and Mozart Posted by Utah Opera in Abduction , Online Learning 18 Apr 2014 Lesson created by Dr. Luke Howard of the BYU School of Music. Few composers have exerted such a pronounced impact on the development of opera as Mozart. Like his older colleague Christoph Gluck (1714-87), Mozart understood that the mid-18th century traditions of opera inherited from the baroque had become stale and stilted. By applying many of Gluck’s suggestions for operatic reform—more dramatic integrity, less artifice, and greater connection between music and drama—Mozart created a vibrant and rich tradition of his own that has not diminished either in importance or influence in subsequent eras. While Mozart excelled at composing Italian opera, both comic and serious, he also periodically dabbled in the German-language genre of the Singspiel, in which spoken dialog is interspersed with set musical numbers (much like a Broadway show).

The Singspiel tradition as a form of popular entertainment was less set in its ways, less formal, and therefore in less obvious need of reform and innovation. When Mozart composed Singspiele, as he did throughout his career, he felt freer to indulge in the whimsy, wit, and populist musical styles associated with that genre than he did in his Italian operas. Even though he spoke fluent Italian, Mozart also had the advantage of working in his native language with the Singpsiel, which also broadened its reach to the German-speaking audiences in Vienna. As a genre, the Singspiel had its origins in the semi-sacred miracle plays of medieval Germany. It was only in the 17th century that secularized Singspiele began to appear, making the genre as Mozart knew it actually a more recent development than Italian opera. It was still relatively fresh and ripe for expansion. Mozart’s first “opera” in any form was actually part of a sacred Singspiel which he composed in 1767 when he was only eleven years old, titled Die Schuldigkeit der ersten Gebots (“The Obligation of the First Commandment”).

Mozart wrote the first part of this work, with Michael Haydn and Anton Adlgasser contributing the other two parts. The whole work was performed in the palace of the Archbishop of Salzburg (which, coincidentally, would become Mozart’s place of employment six years later). The mid-18th century Singspiel was, however, more usually a popular form of secular entertainment, produced by travelling troupes more frequently than by established opera companies. It was during this period that the young Mozart was lapping up as many different musical experiences as he could. Just as the Singspiel was really hitting its stride as a popular entertainment in Austria, Mozart wrote his first secular work in the genre, the comedy Bastien und Bastienne. This work was commissioned when Mozart was only 12 years old, but already the young genius composer showed a mastery of both French and German vocal forms. A parody of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s French opera Le Devin du village, Bastien und Bastienne was a small-scale, one-act comedy that was almost certainly intended to be a somewhat portable entertainment. One contemporary report mentions that it was premiered in the garden theater of the patron who commissioned the work, Dr.

Franz Mesmer, which would partly explain the small scale of the work. Though an example of Mozart’s juvenilia, Bastien und Bastienne, gave the composer crucial experience in music for the stage, which admittedly seems to have come to him naturally anyway. Through his teen years, Mozart wrote numerous serious operas, and occasionally ventured again into German-language stage music. In 1774, he wrote incidental music in an operatic style for a production of the German play Thamos: König in Ägypten, which was later expanded in 1779 with extra choruses and interludes. In 1779, Mozart also started work on a new Singpiel titled Zaide. He never completed the work, and none of it was performed (that we know of) during his lifetime. One of the motivations for Mozart to work again in the German genre might have been the establishment of the Nationalsingspeil, a theatrical project sponsored by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, with the specific goal of encouraging German-language opera in Austria.

Zaide might have functioned as something of a trial run for Mozart, re-acquainting himself with the genre of the Singspiel that he had only sporadically experimented with in the past. Unhappy with his position working for the Archbishop of Salzburg, he actively sought opportunities for success in arenas that might offer respite from a restricted employ in what he considered a provincial town, and the Emperor’s new theater project provided such an opportunity. In the meantime, Mozart had enjoyed great success in Munich in early 1781 with Idomeneo, an Italian opera seria. Flush with the success of Idomeneo, Mozart left Salzburg for Vienna, bringing with him the score for Zaide which he showed to Gottlieb Stephanie, the director of the Nationalsingspiel. Stephanie was impressed with Mozart’s score. What’s more, the theater manager, Count Orsini-Rosenberg, had heard Mozart play through some excerpts of Idomeneo, and was also struck by Mozart’s skill as a composer of staged musical drama. With the Count’s support, Stephanie agreed to commission a new Singspiel from Mozart, and he set about finding a suitable libretto himself.

Stephanie seems to have taken the easy road to finding a libretto—he simply pirated a libretto by Christoph Bretzner from a Singspiel produced in Berlin that same year (1781) titled Belmonte und Costanze, oder Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The music for this production was by Johann André, whose son (Johann Anton André) would later intersect with Mozart’s music rather dramatically. In 1799, Johan Anton André purchased a major collection of hundreds of Mozart’s manuscripts from Mozart’s widow, Constanze, and started publishing them in highly-respected editions, many of the works appearing in print for the first time. He is sometimes, therefore, referred to as the “father of Mozart research,” but for the time being, the most significant connection between Mozart and the Andrés was that Mozart was about to set the same story to music that Johann André had set in Berlin earlier that year. Stephanie tweaked the libretto a little here and there, but it was still the same story, with the same characters and basic plot outline.

What made this story take off in Vienna, though, in a way that it didn’t in Berlin was not only the quality of Mozart’s music. It was the Viennese fascination with exoticism in general, and the Ottoman Empire specifically. Mozart : Bastien und Bastienne (10) - Aria 'Diggi, daggi, schurry, murry" - YouRepeat Add our chrome extension to repeat YouTube videos at the click of a button Mozart : Bastien und Bastienne (10) - Aria 'Diggi, daggi, schurry, murry" Choose your time range using the slider. Start: Use this link to share your repeat GIF Creation Settings Separate tags with commas or press enter (max 5 tags) Quick GIF Create Rene Pape Diggi Daggi Mozart Bastien und Bastienne Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50 is a one-act singspiel, a comic opera, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Bastien und Bastienne was one of Mozart's earliest operas, written in 1768 when he was only twelve years old. It was allegedly commissioned by Viennese physician and 'magnetist' Dr.

Franz Mesmer as a satire of the 'pastoral' genre then prevalent, and specifically as a parody of the opera Le devin du village by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The German libretto is by Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern, Johann Heinrich Müller and Johann Andreas Schachtner, based on "Les Amours de Bastien et Bastienne" by Justine Favart and Harny de Guerville . After its supposed premiere in Mesmer's garden theater, it was not revived again until 1890. It is not clear whether this piece was performed in Mozart's lifetime. The first known performance was on 2 October 1890 at Architektenhaus in Berlin. The opera is written in both French and German manners. Many of the melodies are French in manner, but the Bastienne's first aria is true German lied. This melody is also used in Mozart's Trio in G for Piano, Violin and Violoncello, K. 564. Another purely German lied is Bastienne's aria "I feel certain of his heart". Mozart utilizes the orchestra sparingly, with the exception of the reconciliation scene.

Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music.

He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his influence on subsequent Western art music is profound; Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years." Place of birth: Salzburg Mainly Mozart presents its first opera, “Bastien and Bastienne” | Opera Reviews and Interviews Opera Reviews and Interviews Posted on June 5, 2016 by David A detail from a pastoral scene by François Boucher, about 1740. Mainly Mozart’s very first opera performance, Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne, a one-act Singspiel written in 1768 when the composer was only twelve. Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra Mozart: Gallimathias musicum in D Major, K. 32 Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19 Mozart: Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50/46b San Diego: Review by David Gregson, Sunday, June 5 As a genre, the German Singspiel invariably presents a problem for producers in English- speaking countries.

Should a work such as Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) be performed entirely in the language of the audience or entirely in German? If entirely in German, the stretches of spoken dialogue (one of the Singspiel’s defining characteristics) may not be understood. Idiomatic spoken German also can pose problems for the singers, some of whom may be more skilled at singing the language than speaking it. One could, of course, simply perform the whole damn thing in English. Unfortunately, this is not a fashionable or very satisfactory solution because singers who already know the music do not want to have to relearn it in another language. And singing in English, depending on the venue, is often hard to understand without the aid of supertitle translations. If you’re going to use those, why bother to sing in English at all? The compromise, which I happen to dislike because it makes no dramatic sense whatsoever, is to sing in German and speak in English. Famous progressive stage director Peter Sellars so disliked this compromise that at Glyndebourne one year, he jettisoned the spoken text altogether, much to the confusion and annoyance of many opera goers.

In any case, when a semi-staged version of Mozart’s early Singspiel, Bastien and Bastienne, was prepared for the opening performances of our local Mainly Mozart Festival, music director Michael Francis and stage director Cynthia Stokes, settled on the bilingual approach — with projected titles translating the sung portions in German, although not with the spoken parts in English. Bastien and Bastienne, a parody of a pastoral romance written when little Amadeus was only 12, is a jolly short 45 minutes long. A deft performance can make the piece a charmer. (I favor a 1990 recording with soprano Edita Gruberová as the shepherdess Bastienne; tenor Vinson Cole as her amorous pursuer, Bastien; and basso László Polgár as the soothsayer, Colas. The Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra is conducted by Raymond Leppard.) The story is nothing at all — the comic pre-marital antics of a shepherd and shepherdess, with the absurd complications mediated by a rural magician. All ends quickly and happily. Tenor Yoojong Kim Mainly Mozart’s singers were a talented young trio from Juilliard.

Performing in costume just downstage of the wonderful MM Festival orchestra conducted by Maestro Francis, the three did their best to beguile the audience, mostly by mugging shamelessly under the stage direction of Cynthia Stokes. These were Christine Taylor Price (Bastienne), a fine soprano with a light lyric sound with a fast beat, but well suited to many Mozart roles; Yujoong Kim (Bastien) a Korean tenor with a pleasing warm timbre; and Daniel Miroslaw, a resonant Polish basso with a fine future ahead of him. The latter’s spoken dialogue, however, was virtually impossible to decipher, partly due to the acoustic, his accent and dynamic vocal inflection. It interesting to a like a singer a great deal even though you cannot understand a word he’s saying! Soprano Christine Taylor Price. No doubt the section of the Balboa Theatre auditorium where one was seated made a big difference in how this performance was perceived. I was delighted with my fine seat on the aisle in row N, but I could not make out most of the spoken dialogue consistently. Oddly, I could make out the German words in the sung sections.

So for me, the bilingual solution was largely a flop — not even taking into consideration the silliness of the continual mugging for which I could not summon up a single ounce of the willing suspension of disbelief. Basso Daniel Miroslaw Aside from the acting which evoked for me vivid memories of well-meaning educational opera outreach troupes that visited my high school in days of yore (and I recall an awful performance of an abbreviated Die Entführung aus dem Serail which made us kids want to hate Mozart forever), there was nothing that more rehearsal time could not have cured. The conductor is fine, the orchestra is excellent, the singers gifted — but this little piece requires some real style and polish to truly bring it off. It’s not a masterpiece, after all. It’s a work by a young genius who would soon write many masterpieces and utterly matchless operas. But this year’s Mainly Mozart Festival is focusing on Mozart the Prodigy — an interesting marketing idea, although for me it’s more like Mozart the Circus Performer. Marvel at what this kid can do! There’s a bit of Samuel Johnson’s dog walking on its hind legs here.

A 12-year-old can write an opera, so “you are surprised to find it done at all.” All objections aside, Bastien and Bastienne is full of music that foreshadows what is to come in a great career. It’s tightly constructed, full of good natured humor, and it combines elements of the German Lied and other musical styles, and it builds at the end from a duet into a trio. I can imagine Amadeus being very pleased with himself. But credit must also go to the book: a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern, Johann Heinrich Friedrich Müller, and Johann Andreas Schachtner. Festival Orchestra. Photo by Kate Auda The best part of last night’s program was not the opera but the marvelous performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto, No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19, with 15-year-old Umi Garrett at the keyboard. This young woman is well on her way to being a mature artist who does not need to draw attention to her age to impress. Everything about her Beethoven playing was commendable.

Where her youthful indiscretion revealed itself was in her egregiously showy encore, the “Concert Paraphrase on Mozart’s ‘Turkish March'” in A minor, by the ever vulgar Arcadi Volodos. It wowed everyone — so I suppose, why not? In the pre-concert program, conductor Francis discussed the program’s opening work, Mozart’s Gallimathias musicum in D Major, K. 32. Before he conducted it less than an hour later, he probably should have told the audience they were free to laugh. Mozart was apparently in his P.D.Q. Bach mood when he wrote this playful and highly inventive 17-movement work. I loved the goofy harpsichord solo and the wonderful fugue at the end. Some interesting concerts are slated to follow. See Mainly Mozart Festival Please feel free to leave comments below. (Moderated forum). This entry was posted in Uncategorized . Bookmark the permalink . Incident Light Comic opera set in Mexico finds composer Robert X. Rodriguez in top form March 4, 2009 San Antonio-born composer Robert X.

Rodriguez has created a handsomely crafted, audience-pleasing romp in the form of “La Curandera,” a one-act comic opera to a libretto by Mary Medrick. Commissioned and first produced by Opera Colorado, “La Curandera” has been brought to the composer’s home state in a series of performances by students at the University of Texas Butler School of Music. I caught it in a double bill with Mozart’s very early Singspiel “Bastien und Bastienne” -- the pairing intended by Rodriguez -- on Feb. 28 in Austin’s new Mexican American Cultural Center. The production was a collaboration with Austin Lyric Opera. “La Curandera” was designed for touring to schools, and the plot is fairly thin: The young Americans Alberto and his fiancée, Alba, travel to Mexico to visit Alberto’s great uncle, Godofredo. Alba unjustly suspects Alberto of a dalliance with Godofredo’s nurse, Dionisia. A hotel keeper, Ramon, arranges for Alba’s suspicions to be exorcised by a local curandera. And everyone lives happily ever after.

These might not be the makings of immortal theater, but the laughs are abundant and honestly obtained, and there is much pleasure to be had from the composer’s sheer mastery of his craft. Rodriguez appropriates some familiar melodies from Mexican folk tradition, freshens them up and weaves them through deftly made, rhythmically vibrant original material. He calls for an orchestra of only nine players, but the instrumentation (two strings, three winds, piano, accordion, percussion and timpani) affords a wide gamut of color possibilities, and Rodriguez exploits them superbly. There’s only one memorable solo aria, in which the aged Godofredo (bass-baritone Daymon Passmore) ruminates on the passage of time, but there are delightfully intricate ensembles for three, four and six singers. The rather violent exorcism is amply funny. Tenor Kevin King and soprano Lisa Kelly turned in excellent comedic performances as Alberto and Alba; they shared a lovely duet of reminiscence. Mezzo-soprano Claudia Chapa’s dark, rich instrument was well suited to the title role. The whole cast radiated energy and melded into a team.

Stage director Marc Reynolds managed the small space and sparse decor nicely. Conductor Stephan Sanders led the cast and the strong orchestra with liveliness and crisp rhythms. “Bastien und Bastienne” is thematically similar to “La Curandera.” Bastien fears that her boyfriend has turned his affections elsewhere and seeks the counsel and magical spells of the local charlatan, Colas. Mozart was only 12 when he wrote “Bastien und Bastienne,” but the music is remarkably assured, and one can hear hints of the mature Mozart’s understanding of character and emotion as it would be applied later in “Cosi fan tutte.” The production was most notable for the gleaming, agile Bastienne of soprano Maranda Childs and for the brisk pacing of conductor Wes Schultz. Additional performances are scheduled for March 6 t 8 p.m. and March 8 at 7 p.m. in the McCullough Opea Theater, behind Bass Concert Hall and downhill from the LBJ Library, on the UT-Austin campus. For tickets, call (512) 477-6060.

Mike Greenberg The Operas of Mozart The Operas of Mozart Composed at: Salzburg First performance: May, 1767 - Salzburg University It is called an intermezzo and is written to a comic Latin text (comic not in the sense that it is funny, but in that its ending is not tragic) for performance at Salzburg University. It consists of a small overture in one movement, followed by recitatives and arias, some of which possess a definite lyric charm. Words by: Weiskern Composed at: Vienna First performance: October 1768 at the garden theatre of Dr. Anton Mesmer; (its "official" premiere wasn't until 1890) Legend has it that this German popular comic opera was commissioned by Dr. Anton Mesmer, the friend of the Mozarts who invented the medical use of magnetism. There are, however, a number of questions about the accuracy of the story and it must remain unconfirmed and suspect.

Whatever the case, this work shows Mozart as much a master of the short, melodic type of ariette, dependent upon a simple, song-like structure, as he was of the Italian aria, with its complex and necessary coloratura. This is considered Mozart's first Singspiel and was composed when he was twelve years old. Composed at: Vienna First performance: May, 1769 - Salzburg This work was actually commissioned by Emperor Joseph II of Vienna. It was written and ready to produce when, for unknown reasons, the singers, who had been happy with their arias, began to complain that they could not sing them. The orchestra complained of having a child conduct them. Rumors began to spread that Wolfgang was not fluent enough in Italian, that the music was worthless, and that Leopold had actually written the music. The opera was not staged and Leopold, in petitioning the court, alienated the Emperor and his mother. The opera was eventually performed in Salzburg.

The libretto is like so much 18th-century comedy in that it builds its story around the old characters of the "commedia dell'arte." As we expect, each character conforms to a stereotype and neither the librettist nor the composer thought to create any of the distinctively human characterization that was to be Mozart's greatest contribution to the genre. Composed at: Milan First performance: December 1770 - Milan This was Mozart's first, full-blown opera, which was the result of a commission from Milan in 1770. The libretto was taken from Racine by Vittorio Cigna-Santi, and has been described as "the best libretto for an opera seria that Mozart would ever have." It is possible that Mozart was too young to do the libretto justice, since he still accepted certain conventions of the time in a way that a more experienced composer might have rejected. But the boy's concern was to please his singers first and his audience next. He succeeded in both respects. Most of the arias fall into the category of da capo arias with truncated recapitulation and most have a concerto-like, long opening ritornello .

The vocal writing includes much coloratura, and places are reserved for cadenzas for the soloists. Dramma per musica / Opera seria Words by: Gammera / Metastasio Composed at: Salzburg and Milan First performance: December, 1772 - Milan This is the last opera Mozart wrote for Italy. Despite the conventional plot and stock types of this work, Mozart gives early indications of his rapidly developing personal style. The orchestra is given much more to do and its effect is considerably richer than in "Mitridate." The pervasive texture is reminiscent of chamber music in that all parts contribute vitally to the whole, rather than function simply as accompaniment. The da capo aria with its heavy load of coloratura is still prevalent but the sequence of aria types is varied. It is in the melodic and harmonic usage, however, that the most telling signs of the future are to be seen. Even more significant is the harmonic vocabulary with which he accomplishes the expression of mixed emotions. Lucio Silla had an inauspicious first performance, which began three hours late and did not conclude until two in the morning. There were a number of other mishaps as well.

The work itself was successful, but it failed to generate other commissions from Milan and it was never performed beyond that city. Composed at: Salzburg and Munich First performance: January 1775 - Munich The play is described as a farce, and the libretto is the kind of thing that, five years later, he would probably have rejected. It is, however, an effective vehicle, full of misunderstandings that create stage situations of broad comedy and Mozart's music reflects the plot magnificently. Despite the occasional duet, this is an opera of arias and the exit aria dominates, a sure sign that Mozart was not yet fully emancipated from the seria tradition. We have here the first of the real Mozartian finales, in which the crowd on stage becomes larger and larger and the dramatic situation more and more tense; but the essential feature of the later finale, the interplay of characters, is absent. Like "Lucio Silla," it was not taken up elsewhere, despite the enthusiasm it aroused initially.

Composed at: Salzburg First performance: unfinished This work remains an interesting torso embodying the only fruits of Mozart's short-lived enthusiasm for the style of word-setting called "melodrama" (music interspersed with the spoken word). Why it was never finished is not known: perhaps because the death of the old Empress, Maria Theresa, closed the Viennese theaters for a period of mourning, or perhaps because he became fully occupied with a commission to compose the Carnival opera for Munich -- and Munich had been for years a goal quite as attractive as Vienna. Composed at: Salzburg and Munich First performance: January 1781 - Munich In the Fall of 1780, Mozart was asked to write for the orchestra he most respected -- the Mannheimers -- and for voices he knew, an opera in Italian, not German, and seria, not buffa (his ideal situation). That Mozart put his heart and soul into this commission is evident from the score. On every page there is evidence that the dramatist in Mozart has finally emerged in full maturity, and the miraculous balance between the eternal enemies, Action and Music, is struck for the first time.

Mozart's enthusiasm translated into lavish, richly colored chamber music textures. He invests many of the numbers with novel devices which serve to move the opera seria away from its conventionalized stock-in-trade, toward the realms of real human feeling and urgent drama. Die Entführung aus dem Serail German Musical Play / Comic opera Words by: Stephanie Composed at: Vienna First performance: July, 1782 - Vienna Mozart lavished the utmost care on the two operas of 1781-82: on "Idomeneo" because he hoped it would lead to employment in Munich; and on "Die Entfuhrung" because he hoped it would bring him favor with the Emperor and employment in Vienna. As a comic opera "Die Entfuhrung" uses patter throughout for comic effect. The emphasis on the ritornello is lessened and many of the numbers open with only a preliminary chord before the vocal entry; in two cases, the verses of strophic songs are separated by the insertion of spoken dialogue; the melodic material, even of arias, is strongly influenced by the German popular style. Another quality that helps to make it great is Mozart's psychological identification with the characters.

He was quite aware of the similarity between the situation of the hero, Belmonte, and the heroine, Constanze, and his own. Like Belmonte, he too was bound by love to rescue his Constanze, and like Belmonte he had to battle many adverse forces. Even the villain, Osmin, becomes a means of revenging himself upon his old enemy Colloredo, the Archbishop of Salzburg. Comic opera in one act Words by: Stephanie Composed at: Vienna First performance: February 1786 - Vienna This was a small occasional piece based on an idea of the Emperor. It consists of an overture, two arias, a trio and a quartet with a large amount of spoken dialogue and the plot concerns the rivalry of singers. It is a slight piece that did not cost the composer much effort but brought him both the Emperor's notice, and some money. The score contains, nevertheless, moments of surpassing beauty. The commission for "The Impresario" interrupted work on "The Marriage of Figaro," which Mozart had begun late in 1785.

Composed at: Vienna First performance: May, 1786 - Vienna Perhaps Mozart's most important contribution was his ability to communicate, through musical gestures, subtleties of characterization beyond that which words could achieve alone, never resorting to the stock, cardboard figures with which operas had always been populated. The Countess's dejection is established before she says a word, by the short melodic phrases that all resolved downward, and yet her dignity and strength of character are also clearly shown by the richness of the orchestration and the quiet emphasis upon the strong beat of the measure. Bartolo's fatuous self-importance is demonstrated by pompous orchestration, by his use of patter, and by the juxtaposition of musical incongruities. Cherubino's romantic fixation is established in two ways: his breathlessness by tempo and rhythm, and his obsessiveness by the ostinato quality of the rhythm. These are only a few examples. Mozart's clear perception of character and of each character's relationship to the drama is greatly abetted by the incomparable ease with which he differentiates personalities within an ensemble.

Composed at: Vienna and Prague First performance: October 1787 - Prague Many have regarded this as the greatest of all operas. The score of Don Giovanni is even richer in orchestral color than that of "Figaro," and the effects that Mozart obtains through harmony, instrumentation, and dynamics in the statue scene remain hair-raising to this day. One of Mozart's dramatic constants is verisimilitude. The stop-and-go style of the the 18th-century opera, in which recitative carries action forward and aria conveys reflection or emotional response, is, in itself, far removed from life, yet in the first scenes of "Don Giovanni" the action is carried forward at a speed usually associated with spoken drama, despite its musical repetitions and symmetries. No other opera plunges the audience into the middle of the actions so quickly. The opera was greeted coolly, in Vienna, and judged "too difficult" and "hard for the voices." Hence, no more commissions came until after the successful revival of "Figaro" in 1789. Composed at: Vienna First performance: January, 1790 - Vienna This is Mozart's last comic opera.

It is an opera buffa in the Italian manner, with two pairs of lovers, a plot centering about mistaken identities, and a general air of lighthearted confusion and much ado about nothing, with a satisfactorily happy ending. Nowhere does the music suggest that Mozart felt constrained by the somewhat commonplace, old-fashioned libretto; rather it is as though he were playing with the traditional types and combinations of the opera buffa, making out of them a masterpiece of musical humor lightly touched with irony, avoiding vapid superficiality but never introducing a tone of inappropriate seriousness. The last finale is an especially fine example of his art, an apotheosis of the whole spirit of 18th-century comic opera. "Cosi fan tutte" has been called an opera of ensembles, and Mozart must have experienced considerable pleasure in putting together a first act in which everything works perfectly, with not a moment wasted, and where 12 out of 17 numbers are ensembles. Composed at: Vienna First performance: September, 1791 - Vienna It was an immediate and lasting success in Vienna, thus realizing one of Mozart's deepest desires; unfortunately he did not live to enjoy the triumph for long.

Mozart and Schikaneder resolved to depict the realm of moral duties and virtues by means of Masonic symbols. Both of them were members of the Masonic order, and there is evidence in Mozart's correspondence and his music of the deep impression its teachings had made upon him. He saw in "The Magic Flute" an expression, partly in the guise of a fairy story and partly by means of Masonic or pseudo-Masonic symbols, of the same great ethical ideal of human ennoblement through enlightened striving in brotherhood which exercised such power over men's minds. The idea itself operated so powerfully on Mozart that it not only enabled him to fuse all sorts of contradictory elements into unity -- a trait which had always been fundamental to his genius -- but furthermore compelled him to seek a new musical language for the stage. With the creation of that language, modern German opera was born. When we look over the score of "The Magic Flute" we are struck by the variety of musical types: simple, folklike, strophic songs, elaborate coloratura arias, ensembles, choruses, a chorale, and long accompanied recitatives -- a diversity corresponding to the diversity of characters and scenes in the story.

Yet in hearing the opera we are conscious that it is a unit. Composed at: Vienna and Prague First performance: September 1791 - Vienna (coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia) "La clemenza di Tito" was only a shadow of the old opera seria, a form and style which Mozart had long outgrown. The first performance was a failure, though the opera later attained some degree of popularity. The whole score had been put together within eighteen days, at a time when Mozart was preoccupied with work on "The Magic Flute" and "Requiem," when he was suffering under financial distress, worried about the health of his wife, and himself already ill. Of the ensembles, the finale of Act I is the most dramatic and is incidentally interesting on account of the use of the chorus as background for the soloists -- a device which Mozart had not hitherto employed. Bastien und Bastienne | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Opera-Arias.com Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart October 1768, Vienna, the garden of Dr Anton Messm Language: Not entered yet.

About the opera Bastien und Bastienne Bastien und Bastienne (Bastien and Bastienne), K. 50 (revised in 1964 to K. 46b) is a one-act singspiel, a comic opera, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Bastien und Bastienne was one of Mozart's earliest operas, written in 1768 when he was only twelve years old. It was allegedly commissioned by Viennese physician and 'magnetist' Dr. Franz Mesmer (who himself would later be parodied in Cosï¿½ fan tutte) as a satire of the 'pastoral' genre then prevalent, and specifically as a parody of the opera Le devin du village by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The German libretto is by Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern, Johann Heinrich Mï¿½ller and Johann Andreas Schachtner, based on "Les Amours de Bastien et Bastienne" by Justine Favart and Harny de Guerville (fr). After its supposed premiere in Mesmer's garden theater (that is only corroborated by an unverified account of Nissen), it was not revived again until 1890.

It is not clear whether this piece was performed in Mozart's lifetime. The first known performance was on 2 October 1890 at Architektenhaus in Berlin. Timelines in music history: A timeline of opera in Oxford Music Online Jean-Baptiste Lully's Alceste has its première at the Paris Opéra. Read more... 10 Jan 1676 Lully's Atys has its première at St Germain-en-Laye, Paris. Read more... c1683 John Blow's tragic opera, Venus and Adonis, today considered the first English opera, has its première, either in London or at the court of Windsor. Read more... 15 Feb 1686 Lully's final collaboration with the librettist Quinault, the tragédie lyrique Armide, has its première at the Paris Opéra. Read more... 1689 Henry Purcell composes his opera Dido and Aeneas for performance by the students at a girls' school in Chelsea. Read more...

2 May 1692 Purcell's semi-opera, The Fairy-Queen, adapted from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, has its première at the Queen’s Theatre in London. Read more... 30 Jan 1700 Alessandro Scarlatti's opera L’Eraclea is perfomed at Naples, Teatro S Bartolomeo. In the tradition of earlier, Venetian, opera it mixes comic scenes into the othewise serious story. Read more... 27 April 1720 Radamisto, Handel's first opera for the newly formed Royal Academy of Music has its première in London. Read more... Jan 1721 A. Scarlatti's, Griselda, has its première at the Teatro Capranica, in Rome. Although very rarely performed today, Scarlatti's operas were enormously popular and influential in their own day. Read more... 13 Feb 1725 Handel's Rodelinda has its première at the King’s Theatre, London. Read more...

19 Jan 1728 The Beggar’s Opera, a ballad opera in three acts, arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch to a libretto by John Gay, takes London by storm. Read more... 5 Sept 1733 G. B. Pergolesi's intermezzo La serva padrona is performed between the acts of his opera seria Il prigioniero superbo at Naples, Teatro S Bartolomeo. La serva padrona was one of the most popular intermezzos in the 18th century and has become the 'textbook' intermezzo familiar to most students of music. Read more... 23 Aug 1735 Première at the Paris Opéra of Jean-Philippe Rameau's opéra-ballet, Les Indes galantes, a fascinating window on 18th century exoticism. Read more... 6 Feb 1760 Niccolò Piccinni's, La buona figliuola has its première at the Teatro delle Dame in Rome. The libretto, by the great Carlo Goldoni, is adapted from Samuel Richardson's hugely popular English novel, Pamela. Read more...

26 Dec 1767 Christoph Willibald Gluck's reform opera Alceste has its première at the Vienna, Burgtheater. Read more... Sept/Oct 1768 Probable performance of the twelve-year-old Mozart's singspiel Bastien und Bastienne at the home of Dr Franz Anton Mesmer, the inventor of ‘magnetism therapy’, which Mozart would later parody in Così fan tutte. Read more... 1 May 1769 Mozart's first full opera buffa, La finta semplice, to a libretto based on Goldoni is performed at the Archbishop's palace in Salzburg. The day is uncertain but it was probably the first of May. Read more... 26 Dec 1770 Mozart's first opera seria, Mitridate, re di ponte, is a success in Milan despite the composer's youth and the opera's running time of six hours. Read more... 3 Aug 1777 Joseph Haydn's Il mondo della luna has its première at Eszterháza. Haydn's operas were mostly composed to the taste of his employers at Eszterháza.

Although they never achieved the international stature of his instrumental works, or of the operas of his younger contemporary Mozart, they have begun to receive more attention in recent years. Read more... 29 Jan 1781 Mozart's first mature opera, Idomeneo has its première in Munich at the Residenztheater. Read more... 16 July 1782 Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail has its première at the Vienna Burgtheater. Read more... 15/26 Sept 1782 Giovanni Paisiello's, Il barbiere di Siviglia has its première at the Hermitage, St Petersburg. Though it would be eclipsed by Rossini's later setting of the same story, the opera was an enormous success at the time. Read more... 26 Feb 1784 Haydn's final opera, Armida has its première at Eszterháza. Read more... 21 Oct 1784 André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry's rescue opera Richard Coeur-de-Lion has its première at the Comédie-Italienne, Paris. Read more...

1 May 1786 Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, the first of his three great collaborations with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, has its première at the Vienna Burgtheater. Read more... 29 Oct 1787 Mozart's Don Giovanni has its première at the National Theatre, Prague. Although the legendary title character serves as the central force of the story, it is the three women, whose lives are altered through their encounters with him, who live in the memory. Read more... 8 Jan 1788 Première of Antonio Salieri's Axur, re d’Ormus to a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. Da Ponte and Salieri are both best known to modern audiences as Mozart's collaborator and competitor, respectively. But in late 18th-century Vienna, both were highly respected artists in their own right, as the contemporary success of this opera shows. Read more... 26 Jan 1790 Mozart's Così fan tutte, which then and now is as irresistable as it is controversial, has its première in Vienna, at the Burgtheater. Read more...

6 Sept 1791 Produced just weeks before his final opera, the more famous Zauberflöte, Mozart's last opera seria, La clemenza di Tito, has its premère at the National Theatre in Prague. Read more... 30 Sept 1791 Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, has its première at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna. An allegory set in no real locality or historical period, the work was intended by the composer, and by librettist and fellow Freemason Emanuel Schikaneder, as a coded representation of Freemasonry. Read more... 7 Feb 1792 Domenico Cimerosa's Il matrimonio segreto has its première at the Vienna Burgtheater, 7 February 1792. Read more... 20 Nov 1805 Beethoven's only opera, the rescue opera Fidelio, has its premère at the Vienna Theater an der Wien. Read more... 22 May 1813 Gioachino Rossini's L’italiana in Algeri has its premère at Teatro S Benedetto, Venice.

Despite an unenthusiastic welcome in Venice, the opera went on to great success and was the first of the composer's operas to be produced in Germany. Read more... 20 Feb 1816 Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, set to the same libretto as Paisiello's opera of 1782, has its première at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. Read more... 25 Jan 1817 Rossini's much loved setting of the Cinderella story, La Cenerentola, has its première at the Teatro Valle in Rome. Read more... 18 June 1821 Carl Maria von Weber's 'magic opera', Der Freischütz, has its première at Berlin, Schauspielhaus. Read more... 27 Oct 1827 Vincenzo Bellini's Il pirata has its première at La Scala, beginning a phenomenally successful six-year collaboration between the composer and librettist Felice Romani. Read more... 3 Aug 1829 Rossini's grand opera, Guillaume Tell, has its première at the Paris Opéra. Read more...

26 Dec 1830 Gaetano Donizetti's Anna Bolena, one of his several operas on subjects from English history, has its première at the Teatro Carcano in Milan. Read more... 26 Dec 1831 Bellini's opera Norma, which includes the great coloratura aria 'Casta diva', has its première at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. Read more... 6 March 1831 Bellini's La somnambula has its première at the Teatro Carcano in Milan. Bellini, who died before his 34th birthday, produced a string of lasting favourites in just nine years from 1827 to 1835. Read more... 21 Nov 1831 Giacomo Meyerbeer's first great success, Robert le diable, has its première at Paris Opéra. Read more... 12 May 1832 Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore has its première in the Teatro Cannobiana, Milan. Read more...

24 Jan 1835 Bellini's final opera, I Puritani, with its now famous 'mad scene', has its première at the Théâtre Italien, Paris. Read more... 26 Sept 1835 Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor has its première at the Teatro S Carlo in Naples. The obbligato accompaniment to the famous mad scene, usually heard on flute and performed on that instrument in the first production, was originally composed for glass harmonica, which contributes to the eery quality of the scene. Read more... 9 Dec 1836 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka's A Life for the Tsar, considered the first full Russian opera, has its première at the Bol’shoy Theatre in St Petersburg. Read more... 29 Feb 1836 Meyerbeer's grand opera Les Huguenots has its première at the Paris Opéra. Read more... 2 Jan 1843 Der Fliegende Holländer, Richard Wagner's first mature opera, has its première at the Königliches Sächsisches Hoftheater, in Dresden. Read more...

14 March 1847 Première at the Teatro della Pergola, Florence, of Macbeth, the first of Verdi's three great operas based on the plays of Shakespeare. Read more... 11 March 1851 Première at Teatro La Fenice in Venice of Verdi's Rigoletto, based on Victor Hugo's novel Le roi s'amuse. Read more... 6 March 1853 Verdi's La traviata, composed, it seems, in not much more than six weeks, has its première at Teatro La Fenice, Venice. Read more... 19 March 1859 Charles Gounod's most popular opera, Faust, has its première in Paris at the Théâtre Lyrique. Read more... 4 Nov 1863 Première of Hector Berlioz's grand opera Les Troyens at the Théâtre Lyrique, Paris. Read more... 10 June 1865 Wagner's Tristan und Isolde has its première in Munich, at the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater. Read more...

24 Dec 1871 Verdi's Aida has its première at the newly opened Cairo Opera House. Read more... 5 April 1874 Johann Strauss's light opera, Die Fledermaus has its première at Theater an der Wien, Vienna. Read more... 8 Feb 1874 Modest Musorgsky's Boris Godunov has its première at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg. Read more... 3 March 1875 Georges Bizet's Carmen has its première in Paris at the Opéra-Comique. Carmen is arguably the world's best known opera heroine. Read more... 13 Aug 1876 First performance of Wagner’s complete Ring cycle at Bayreuth, 13–17 August 1876. Read more... 23 Jan 1881 Pyotr Il'ych Tchaikovsky's Yevgeny Onegin (Eugene Onegin) has its première at the Malïy Theatre in Moscow. An earlier performance had been given in 1879 by students at the Moscow Conservatory. Read more...

26 July 1882 Wagner's final opera, Parsifal has its première at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. A 30-year embargo placed on performances outside Bayreuth was ignored by a number of opera houses, including the Metropolitan in New York, which staged it for the first time in 1903. Read more... 19 Jan 1884 Première at the Opéra-Comique, Paris, of Jules Massenet's Manon. Read more... 5 Feb 1887 Otello, one of the most universally respected of Verdi’s operas, is premièred at La Scala. Read more... 19 Dec 1890 Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades has its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. Read more... 17 May 1890 Pietro Mascagni's one-act verismo opera, Cavalleria rusticana, has its première at the Teatro Costanzi, Rome. Read more... 21 May 1892 Ruggero Leoncavallo's I pagliacci has its première at the Teatro Dal Verme, Milan.

Based, like Cavalleria rusticana, on a true story, Pagliacci was composed with the earlier opera in mind, and the two are linked in modern performance tradition. Read more... 1 Feb 1893 Puccini's Manon Lescaut has its première at La Scala. When his publisher tried to dissuade him from composing an opera on a subject that had already had great success in a treatment by Massenet (see 1884, in this timeline), Puccini is said to have replied 'Why shouldn’t there be two operas about her? A woman like Manon can have more than one lover.’ The opera's success has borne him out. Read more... 9 Feb 1893 Verdi's great comic portrait, Falstaff, has its première. Read more... 1 Feb 1896 Puccini's perennial favourite, La bohème, has its première at the Teatro Regio, Turin. Read more... 14 Jan 1900 Puccini's Tosca has its première at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome.

The libretto is based on the play of the same name by Victorien Sardou, who created the title character for the great actress Sarah Bernhardt. Read more... 30 April 1902 Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande is given its première at the Opéra-Comique, Paris. Read more... 17 Feb 1904 Puccini's Madama Butterfly has its première at La Scala. Read more... 9 Dec 1905 Richard Strauss’s opera Salome has its première at the Dresden Hofoper. Read more... 11 Nov 1906 Ethel Smyth's opera The Wreckers has its première (in German, as Standrecht) at the Neues Theater, Leipzig. Read more... 25 Jan 1909 R. Strauss's Elektra is premièred at the Dresden Hofoper. Read more... 26 Jan 1911 R. Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier has its première at the Königliches Opernhaus, Dresden. The opera was a favourite of the composer, and its glorious final trio was performed at a memorial service after his death. Read more...

12 June 1917 Hans Pfitzner's opera, Palestrina, a fictional account of the Council of Trent and the composition of Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli, has its première at the Prinzregententheater, Munich. Read more... 23 March 1918 Charles Wakefield Cadman's opera Shanewis has its première at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. The opera is loosely based on the life of the Cherokee/Creek mezzo-soprano Tsianina Redfeather, who advised Cadman on the work. Read more... 24 May 1918 Béla Bartók's opera Bluebeard's Castle has its première at the Opera in Budapest. Read more... 14 Dec 1925 Alban Berg's opera, Wozzeck has its première at the Staatsoper in Berlin. Read more...

25 April 1926 Puccini's final opera, Turandot left incomplete at the composer's death and completed by Franco Alfano, has its première at La Scala under the baton of Toscaninni, who stops the opera at the death of the slave Liù, where Puccini's own completed score ends. Read more... 31 Aug 1928 Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's Die Dreigroschenoper opens to great success in Berlin. It would become one of the longest-running musical shows in Broadway history. Read more... 23 Feb 1928 Igor Stravinsky's opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex is given its first performance in an unstaged production at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, Paris. The first staged performance was at the Vienna Staatsoper on 23 Feb 1928. Read more... 8 Feb 1934 Virgil Thomson's 'opera to be sung', Four Saints in Three Acts, is premièred in Hartford, CT. Read more...

10 Oct 1935 George Gershwin's magnum opus, his folk opera Porgy and Bess, has its première in New York. Read more... 2 June 1937 Berg's opera, Lulu has its première at the Stadttheater in Zürich. Read more... 7 June 1945 Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes receives its first performance at London's Sadler's Wells. Read more... 11 Sept 1951 Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress has its première at La Fenice, Venice. The libretto, by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman is based on a series of paintings by William Hogarth (1732–3). Read more... 8 June 1953 Britten's Gloriana, an opera about Elizabeth I of England commissioned to celebrate the coronation of Elizabeth II, has its première at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Read more... 29 May 1962 Michael Tippett's King Priam has its première at the Coventry Festival. Read more...

25 July 1976 Philip Glass's first opera, Einstein on the Beach, has its première at the Avignon Festival. Read more... 6 Sept 1977 Thea Musgrave's opera Mary Queen of Scots has its première at the Edinburgh Festival. Read more... 21 May 1986 Harrison Birtwistle's Mask of Orpheus has its première at the London Coliseum. Read more... 22 Oct 1987 John Adams' opera Nixon in China, a treatment of the US President's 1972 meeting with Chairman Mao, has its première at the Houston Grand Opera. Read more... Mainly Mozart Festival Opens: Prodigies on Parade – San Diego Story Ken Herman 0 Comment June 6, 2016 Who does not know that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy? That his less musically gifted but financially astute father, Leopold Mozart, paraded the young lad around Europe’s major cultural centers so that the nobility might lavish their favor and gold upon the talented young genius is also a familiar bit of historical lore.

Michael Francis [photo courtesy of Mainly Mozart Festival] But during an interview with Mainly Mozart Music Director Michael Francis a few months before the 2016 Mainly Mozart Festival opened, Francis expressed his concern that even classical music buffs who love Mozart’s music know virtually nothing about the music Mozart wrote when he was a prodigy. Francis decided to begin to remedy that situation by programming only Mozart’s earliest music on the 2016 season, which he has titled “The Prodigy Year.” On the festival’s opening night concert at the Balboa Theatre, Saturday, June 4, we heard two rare early Mozart works, an instrumental piece “Gallimathias musicum in D Major,” K. 32, and the young lad’s one-act opera Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50/46b. A jaunty work that unfolds into 17 short sections, “Gallimathias musicum” (a term that means “musical nonsense”) struck me as a precursor to the much longer and more fanciful Serenades the composer wrote later in his career and that are often programmed today.

Completed when Mozart was all of 10 years old, the short movements of the “Gallimathias musicum” bristled with abundant clever ideas and bright orchestrations. I particuilarly enjoyed the rousing horn calls that kept returning in a rondo Allegro, a saucy harpsichord solo, and the various miniature fugues articulated so joyfully by the accomplished wind section of the Mainly Mozart Festival orchestra. Francis’ violins sported a mellifluous shimmer, and the entire orchestra’s tight rhythmic ensemble maintained its fresh, buoyant air from start to finish. The work’s culminating movement, a sturdy fugue, is actually based on the Dutch patriotic tune “Willen van Nassau,” an apt salute to the young Dutch Prince William V of Orange, for whose installation Mozart wrote “Gallimathias musicum.” The fact that 12-year-old Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne was not even the composer’s first attempt at writing an opera provides sufficient amazement for most opera aficionados.

Based on a simple, pastoral love story told in less than an hour, this German-language comic opera boasts a garland of pretty arias and several promising ensembles spurred by surprisingly sophisticated orchestrations. On the other hand, it claims only a soupçon of dramatic complication—will the roving swain win back this first love, the simple shepherdess Bastienne? Daniel Miroslaw [photo courtesy of Mainly Mozart Festival] Mainly Mozart presented a semi-staged, concert version of this opera, and, given its paucity of plot, this format is probably all this work actually requires. Francis gave the score a spirited interpretation, full of youthful optimism. I was impressed with Daniel Miroslaw, whose bright and flexible bass showed a keen baritonal edge that allowed him to cut through even busy orchestral passages. As the story’s narrator and the advice-to-the-lovelorn dispensing magician Colas, he enlivened the proceedings every moment he appeared on stage. Mozart gave most of the arias in this little opera to Bastienne, sung with an excess of zeal by soprano Christine Taylor Price.

Her highest range suggested real dramatic power, but the role required only modest use of her best asset and remained in her realtively weak mid-range most of the time. Combined with her mushy German pronunciation, this was not a formula for a stirring performance. On the other hand, the bloom of Yujoong Kim’s bright and supple tenor communicated splendidly both the pride and contrition of Bastienne’s lover, a role that suggested a nascent Tamino or Massetto, vivid characters from two of Mozart’s mature operas. The reconciliation duet of this short opera’s two main characters, a charming siciliana, as well as its rousing final trio proved its most engaging moments, hints of that kind of magnificent ensemble writing that elevates the Mozart operas we know and love. Keeping with Francis’ prodigy theme, the 15-year-old Umi Garrett played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, a work the composer started as a teen-ager, although he finished this concerto in his mid-twenties. While not the work of a prodigy, it certainly qualifies as very early Beethoven.

Umi Garrett [photo courtesy of Mainly Mozart Festival] Garrett’s opening notes sounded light and dreamy, but the music quickly called for a more assertive character, which she supplied in spades. Most commentators note the Mozartean quality of the Concerto’s first movement, and Garrett’s appproach combined Mozartean grace and clarity with the muscular drive we expect from later Beethoven. I was won over by the way she used the composer’s profuse ornamentation to decisively shape phrases, and her sharp, clean attacks delineated his themes with complete assurance. In the Concerto’s middle movement, Garrett crafted sonically seductive themes, to which the orchestra and Francis responded in kind. The ebullient Rondo showed off Garrett’s well-developed technical prowess as well as her astute understanding of late Classical style. For her encore, Garrett played Arcadi Volodos’ rather bumptious but demanding “Turkish March,” a take-off on Mozart’s well-known Rondo. In its opening night offering, the Mainly Mozart Festival orchestra displayed the polish and clean ensemble we have come to expect from this elite assembly. Now in his second season as Music Director, Francis is making the orchestra his own.

The players exhibit a freer, more relaxed sound, and the strings are noticably sweeter. I eagerly wait to see how this approach translates into other orchestral styles. This concert of the Mainly Mozart Festival orchestra was given on June 4, 2016, in downtown San Diego’s Balboa Theatre. The Festival continues through June 18, 2016. Balboa Theatre Austria Starts Series Celebrating Mozart | News ï¿½ CoinsWeekly Subscribe to our Newsletter Austria Starts Series Celebrating Mozart August 13, 2015 – The Austrian Mint will issue a new silver coin to begin a set of 3 silver coins entitled “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, A Life in Three Acts”, celebrating the musical genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His name, arguably, makes up the three most famous words in musical history. Austria / 2015 / 20 Euros / Silver .900 / 20 g / 34 mm / Designers: Helmut Andexlinger and Thomas Pesendorfer / Mintage: 50,000.

The obverse of the coin depicts a forward facing young Mozart dressed in formal attire, which he was often seen wearing while performing for numerous European royal courts. The engraver has captured the details of his lace cuff and neckline very clearly. The first name of Mozart’s three-part signature is mirrored along the lower portion of the design. This side of the coin was designed and engraved by Austrian Mint engraver Helmut Andexlinger and also bears the face value of 20 euros and the country of issue, “Republik Österreich”, the Republic of Austria, as well as the year of issue, 2015. The reverse of the coin depicts the opera “Bastien und Bastienne,” a light-hearted comic one-act opera. This side depicts the reunion of Bastien and his girl Bastienne by a spell chanted by the magician depicted in the center. The fine details of the design painstakingly capture the rich details of the sorcerer’s cloak as well as the elaborate costumes of the two young people. Even the curly fur of the lamb carried by Bastienne, in the croak of her left arm, has been carefully captured by the mint’s chief engraver Thomas Pesendorfer.

Mozart, the young prodigy, wrote this opera at the tender age of 12 in 1768. The story of the opera is a story of the young girl Bastienne who becomes unsure when her good friend Bastien begins to admire another young lady. Bastienne speaks with the village sorcerer who advises her to give Bastien a cold shoulder and be distant. Bastien is shocked when he comes back to the stage and the sorcerer states that Bastienne has a new friend. Bastien sings about his love for Bastienne. The magician seizes the opportunity and speaks a nonsensical spell. However, Bastienne decides to continue the ruse a bit longer until Bastien threatens to commit suicide. The two decide that this has gone on long enough and come back together. Mozart’s understanding of human behavior and the ability to exaggerate for comic effect was well developed, especially for a preteen – a skill that becomes apparent in some of his later works as well. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (aged 14) in Verona, painting by Saverio dalla Rosa, 1770.

Mozart was born in Salzburg on January 27, 1756. He was christened Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus. Since his birthday, January 27, is also the Catholic feast day for St. John Chrysostom, this was a given to be part of his Christian name. Mozart liked to call himself Wolfgang Amadé or Amadeus. He was multilingual and therefore adapted his name throughout his lifetime. Mozart was as boisterous and playful as the Rococo period during which he was born. His father, Leopold, was a composer himself and taught his children, Maria Anna (aka Nannerl) and Wolfgang, music. Maria Anna at the age of seven, five years older than Wolfgang, was learning to play piano from her father with Wolfgang looking on. It was not long before Wolfgang mimicked her at the keyboard. His first public performance was at the age of six at the Bavarian court in Munich alongside his older sister. The skill and ability of the musical prodigy was recognized early and his father gave up his own composing life to focus on the general education of his children and especially on the musical talents of his son.

They toured and performed at the royal courts of London, The Hague, Munich, Paris and Zurich. Each member of the family fell life-threateningly ill while on tour but that did not prevent the young Mozart from completing three operas by the age of 12. When his sister Nannerl was 18 and Wolfgang 13, she stopped performing publically as was the social custom of the time. Wolfgang continued touring with his father alongside. They met such well-known composers of the time as Bach and Haydn. After a falling out with his benefactor in Salzburg, he moved to Vienna, where he met and then married Constanze Weber. They followed an extravagant lifestyle, living in the most exclusive apartment in Vienna and wearing elaborate clothing, both of which Mozart could not really afford. He tried to pay for it with many performances and his compositions that were often commissioned works. He died in 1791 at the very young age of 35 – young even for those times – and was buried in a common unmarked grave. It is unclear what he died of.

A short life for a musical genius who composed 600 pieces covering the span of music from operas to symphonies, concertos, chamber music and piano solos. The Austrian Mint’s new series of three silver coins is dedicated to the life of Mozart, in three acts, one issue per year as follows: 2015 Wolfgang: The Wunderkind

Question: The one-act comic opera ‘Bastien und Bastienne’ was the first by which composer aged 12?
Answer: Mozart