And now, we see what fifteen-year-old Mozart can do. Spoiler: quite a bit.
The story here...well, calling it a "story" might be a stretch. Ascanio is Aeneas' son with Venus (which is confusing, because in the Aeneid and everywhere else I know, Aeneas is actually Venus' son). He is destined to marry a woman named Silvia. They've never met, but she has dreamed of him and fallen in love that way, we are told. So, great! But not so fast: for Reasons, Venus doesn't want Ascanio to reveal himself to Silvia, so the characters sort of bumble around for two acts, and then finally she says, okay, now you can do it, and he does. And everyone's happy. Whoo!
Well, the plot doesn't really matter. The point is that Mozart was a killer composer even at this age. I say that it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between Mozart and his peers, and why he's necessarily supposed to be better, but here's one concrete reason: I'm pretty sure none of them were doing anything like this at such a young age.
The production here...well, it doesn't exactly capture the pastoral spirit of the opera particularly; everyone decked out in wigs and things, and the stage being overwhelmingly blue for most of it. Still, it's fine, and the other production available on disc sounds, by all accounts, like absolutely horrid Eurotrash. Also, it features Diane Damrau. Eek! I mean, just LOOK at this:
Egads! Of course, it also features Sonia Prina, whom I like a lot. But still. Then again, it's obvious why Damrau was cast: she plays the shepherd Fauno, who has one aria in particular with some truly vertiginous high notes. I'm sure Damrau kills it, but I'm also a big fan of Desirée Rancatore in the role: one could argue that she's not quite comfortable hitting one particular high note, but she's nonetheless very impressive and--I think on the strength of just this one aria--gets the biggest round of applause. I'd never seen her before, I don't think, but I want to again.
So yeah. Discount Mozart's early work at your peril!
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