Opera seria in 3 acts
Libretto by Vittorio Amadeo Cigna-Santi after Jean Baptiste Racine
First performed December 26 1770, Teatro Regio Ducal, Milan
A co-production with the Teatro Real, Madrid, Teatro di San Carlo, Naples & Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona
Sung in Italian with German & English surtitles
Introductory talks (in German) in the Holzfoyer 30 mins before curtain up, available here shortly after opening night and everywhere where podcasts are to be found.
Elderly King Mitridate wants to marry again, but suspects his sons might dispute his right to his beloved Aspasia and the throne. He therefore spreads the rumour that he died in battle after being defeated by the Romans. Sure enough, his older son Farnace starts pressurising his father’s young intended bride to marry him. But Aspasia secretly loves Sifare, his younger brother, who she asks to protect her from Farnace’s advances. The King of Pontus, believed to be dead, returns in the company of Irene, whom Farnace once promised to marry. Everyone starts eyeing each up other suspiciously. Farnace, in league with the Romans, plots against his father while Sifare und Aspasia are torn between their love for one another and loyalty to Mitridate. Left at the mercy of the King’s jealousy, their desperation brings them close to death.
It’s astonishing with what psychological sensitivity 14-year-old Mozart transforms his protagonists’ volatile psychological states into music! A garland of arias, some highly virtuosic, with equally virtuosic orchestration, testifies not only to Mozart’s inventiveness but gives us real insights into the emotionally charged web of family relationships. This child progidy’s early work made the stiff form of opera seria deeply moving and electrifying with his infallible theatrical instinct.
