Right, so there are the four regularly-performed Mozart operas and then there are the three that are somewhat less-regularly-performed but remain part of the common repertoire, and then there are the fifteen that you don't hear much about. Fifteen! Why is that, I ask you? Because they were written before he had reached his full musical maturity, people will say (okay, and a few of them are fragmentary, which seems a little more justifiable). Well...okay. But, need I point out, most composers are not as good as Mozart at his full musical maturity, and yet a lot of them still write good music that people like to listen to? So why do we just ignore early Mozart? Early Mozart is derivative, people sometimes say, when they want to sound smart. And, again...okay. Obviously he wasn't composing ex nihilo. But derivative of whom, exactly? Name some names! Are you seriously telling me that you're worried you'll watch an opera by the young Mozart and go, YAWN I've heard it all before! Welcome to Snoozeville! seems sort of...doubtful.
So let's look at his first two operas, written in close succession by Li'l Wolfgang at the tender age of eleven. People differ about whether Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots counts as an "opera," but I say of course it does: it has operatic music and singing and a story, what more do you want? Well, it's an allegorical religious drama, which some people think is different somehow, but I'm not sure why. It is true that it's incomplete: it was a three-part piece of which Mozart only wrote the first (which runs about an hour and a half), and the other two (one of which was written by Joseph Haydn's brother Michael) are somehow non-extant. There's not a whole lot of tension about what happens next, however: basically, we have the Spirits of Justice, Mercy, and Christianity trying to bring a man only referred to as "a half-hearted but later zealous Christian" back into the fold, only there's an opposing Spirit of Worldliness arguing that actually, he should just sha la la la la la live for today. Oh no what will we do?!? Well, he's still in doubt when this first part ends, but we can probably take a wild guess.
Well, it's recognizably Mozart. It's not altogether the most thrilling piece, but that's as much due to the not-super-compelling libretto as anything, and there actually are some legitimately good arias here. To no one's surprise, Worldliness steals the show; I hope it's not blasphemous to say it, but the Spirit of Christianity comes across as kind of gormless. I enjoyed watching it, however, if only to see where It All Began. And NOT, in fact, "only" that, just so we're clear.
Apollo et Hyacinthus is more uncontroversially an opera, concerning as it does secular themes. It's also sung in Latin, which is unusual and quite interesting. It's Mozart's only opera with a libretto not in Italian or German. It was written as a short (seventy-five-minute) intermezzo for a longer non-musical drama. As you would surmise, it concerns classical themes; specifically, it's a story taken from Ovid (though with female characters added to avoid the Gay Stuff): Princess Melia is going to marry Apollo, but oh no: it seems that the god murdered her brother Hyacinthus by throwing a discus at his head (as you do). That's bad! Nobody's happy. But wait: it turns out that actually, Hyacinthus was killed by his perfidious friend Zephyrus, who wanted Melia for himself! Anyway, when the truth comes out, Apollo murders the hell out of Zephyrus (or maybe just banishes him; it's a little hard to tell) and resurrects Hyacinthus and everything's good.
If my praise for Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots sounded a little qualified, it's because I was saving it all for Apollo et Hyacinthus, which totally fucking bangs. You can easily hear the influence of Handel (which of course is no bad thing), but really, it's all Mozart. A simple story, but totally fantastic arias. Absolutely great, and it is really truly genuinely incredibly bizarre that it's not staged more.
In fact, these two pieces are only available in this set. WHY?!? Fortunately, it's quite good: very traditional staging that works. In comments to one of the reviews, someone gripes at length about the fact that "Worldliness" in Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots is portrayed as a devil, which I suppose wouldn't have been the case originally, but really, if that's the most serious complaint you can muster...this stuff is must-watch, I'd say.
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