Flanked by the robustness of Haydn’s 99th Symphony and Beethoven’s Seventh, three rare Mozart concert arias will fill the slot traditionally occupied by a concerto in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s programme at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, on January 21 and at Glasgow City Hall the following night.
Given the close relationship between Mozart’s arias and his concertos, it’s a fascinating choice. His concert arias, many of them written as inserts into operas by other (at the time more popular) composers, remain less familiar than they ought to be, and the three picked by the promising young Swiss soprano Regula Muhlemann, who has recently sung Papagena in The Magic Flute at several leading European festivals, as well as Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte in Zurich and Elisa in Il Re Pastore at Verbier, is clearly on the way up.
The three arias, all of them exquisite examples of their kind, form a concerto-like triptych, starting with the dramatic scene Mozart based on an episode from the distinguished Metastasio’s libretto for Didone Abbandonata.
Depicting the fate of Dido, the tragic queen of Carthage who was abandoned by Aeneas, Metastasio’s complete text was turned into operas by numerous composers - though not by Mozart, who contented himself with his scenic fragment and did not write an entire Metastasio masterpiece until La Clemenza di Tito just before his death.
The two other arias are, in contrast, choice samples of Mozartian comedy which deserved a better fate than they received as add-ons to popular operas by lesser composers staged during his lifetime. With such a bright young soloist, and the Spaniard Antonio Mendez making his Scottish debut as conductor, they will surely be a treat.
13 January 2016
Given the close relationship between Mozart’s arias and his concertos, it’s a fascinating choice. His concert arias, many of them written as inserts into operas by other (at the time more popular) composers, remain less familiar than they ought to be, and the three picked by the promising young Swiss soprano Regula Muhlemann, who has recently sung Papagena in The Magic Flute at several leading European festivals, as well as Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte in Zurich and Elisa in Il Re Pastore at Verbier, is clearly on the way up.
The three arias, all of them exquisite examples of their kind, form a concerto-like triptych, starting with the dramatic scene Mozart based on an episode from the distinguished Metastasio’s libretto for Didone Abbandonata.
Depicting the fate of Dido, the tragic queen of Carthage who was abandoned by Aeneas, Metastasio’s complete text was turned into operas by numerous composers - though not by Mozart, who contented himself with his scenic fragment and did not write an entire Metastasio masterpiece until La Clemenza di Tito just before his death.
The two other arias are, in contrast, choice samples of Mozartian comedy which deserved a better fate than they received as add-ons to popular operas by lesser composers staged during his lifetime. With such a bright young soloist, and the Spaniard Antonio Mendez making his Scottish debut as conductor, they will surely be a treat.
13 January 2016
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