Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770)

Mozart's first opera seria, written at the age of fourteen. It's a fairly standard opera seria kind of story: It's antiquity, and Mitridate is, as you might have guessed, king of Pontus, which was an empire centered in what is now northern Turkey. But he's dead, or so it seems, and his sons are not on friendly terms: Sifare doesn't like Farnace because he thinks he's too buddy-buddy with the kingdom's enemy, the Romans. Also, both brothers are vying for the affections of their late father's fiancée (is that weird? I think that's weird. If you read old novels, you're used to first cousins getting married, but this is a new one on me, as far as I recall). Anyway, she's in love with Sifare also, but it turns out Mitridate isn't dead after all! What a twist! The brothers decide to hide their feelings and have a truce, but Farnace is still plotting with those dern Romans. Their dad has brought a Parthian woman, Isemene, whom he wants Farnace to marry; apparently they have a history together. Anyway, things continue along these lines. Mitridate wants to execute his sons, but then the Romans attack and he leaves to fight them. Farance repents. Mitridate commits suicide before forgiving everyone (this may be the first Mozart opera I've seen where a character dies, depending on what happens to the villains in Zauberflöte, which is ambiguous. Both couples become couples and they pledge to fight off Rome, which seems a sort of futile conclusion, since this was the exact point where Rome took over Pontus. But there ye be.

So this music is recognizably Mozart, and I liked it. I think it's the first Mozart performance I've seen featuring a countertenor (the castrato roles in the performances I've seen of Idomeneo and La Clemenza di Tito were all sung by women, alas (not that I'm trying to devalue female singing, but I like countertenors, dammit!)) I guess it's not as sophisticated as his later, better-known work, but I have to admit, I have no idea how to quantify the relative quality of different music. All I can say is that some I like more than others. What can I say? This wasn't an all-time favorite opera, but I liked it, and there are some memorable arias, including some from Aspasia that I would swear anticipate the Queen of the Night, years later. In fairness, I should say that after the first act, the subtitles in the version I saw were horribly out-of-synch, which certainly did not help with the drama.

But aside from that, I liked the production a lot! There are, like, three or four performances of this available on disc, so you can take your pick, but I saw this one (which used to be online, but now, I think, isn't), which drags the action into the present as a sort of light satire of European politics (though not dogmatically so--Eurotrash, sure; Regietheater, no. The whole thing takes place in an airport conference room, and there are big screens which sometimes broadcast mock news reports about the political situation, complete with chryons going into specific details. Rome is referred to as the "Roman Union," and at one point there's mention of a possible "Pontexit." I found it funny and clever and appropriate to the somewhat tangled plot of the opera. However, some day I will watch a more traditional production, just for comparison's sake.