Mozart : Lucio Silla [VOD]
Mozart : Lucio Silla
Mozart was not yet seventeen when Lucio Silla was created in Milan one December evening of 1772, yet we can still distinguish in this youthful composition some of the elements that established the exceptionally-gifted child musician as the greatest composer of all times. Indeed, with Lucio Silla, although a neoclassical “opera seria” in every way, it seems that Mozart was already learning to deconstruct and to free the traditional forms of musical drama from archaic conventions. We can also identify in this work an aesthetic premise that Mozart didn’t formulate until ten years later : it falls to music only to express and to reveal the psychological depths of the characters ; and the poetry in the libretto should only be its “obedient daughter”.
The opera is centered around the love roman dictator Lucio Silla bears for his enemy’s daughter Giunia, who favours the exiled senator Cecilio as the object of her affection. After many twists and turns, the lovers are united in marriage and Silla renounces his crown.
Tenor Kurt Streit is Lucio Silla, and soprano Patricia Petibon is Giunia for the last time, after having gained international recognition thanks to her numerous performances in this role, while mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro Santafe is the ardent Cecilio. In this monumental production, Claus Guth finds a way to respect both the classical setting and the formal innovations that make the opera so interesting. Ivor Bolton conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real.
Mozart : Lucio Silla [VOD]
Dramma per musica in three acts (1772)
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Libretto: Giovanni de Gamerra with the help of Pietro Metastasio
Lucio Silla : Kurt Streit
Giunia : Patricia Petibon
Cecilio : Silvia Tro Santafé
Lucio Cinna : Inga Kalna
Celia : María José Moreno
Aufidio : Kenneth Tarver
Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real – Madrid
Conductor : Ivor Bolton
Stage direction : Claus Guth
Revival stage director : Tine Buyse
Sets and costumes : Christian Schmidt
Lighting design : Manfred Voss
Dramaturg : Ronny Dietrich
‘‘An appealing staging, excellent musical direction and a strong cast’’ – SEEN AND HEARD
‘‘Mozart’s playful flirting with opera seria is a real treat for music lovers. Composed two years after his furious Mitridate, Lucio Silla shows a 16-year-old genius who was starting to realise just how much could be achieved in the twisted margins of classic operatic forms. Its score is an exciting succession of innovations: mosts of the recitatives are accompagnato, the old structure of arias is frequently broken, with long and complex A-parts and the orchestral thread gives sense and harmonic coherence to the whole work.’’ – BACHTRACK
‘‘The singers shine at another level, starting with an excellent Patricia Petibon as Giunia, absolutely commited to her role with an absolute controle of the coloratura and with an intense legato, her arias, of an extreme difficulty, were handled with great ease and overwhelming dramatic abilities.’’ – OPERAWORLD
‘‘Patricia Petibon dominates the corporal language, her coloratura is much more than a waterfall of notes, and builds, details after details, subtilities after subtilities, her character. Silvia Tro Santafé is a valiant seasoned singer, and her aria from the second act revealed a first class singer’’ – EL PAIS
