Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
by Kelley Rourke
If appropriation and parody are among the highest forms of recognition, few composers receive more tips of the hat than he who has inspired such diverse musical-dramatic works as P.D.Q. Bach's Abduction of Figaro and Paul Griffiths' The Jewel Box . His own unadulterated scores remain among the most popular in the repertoire, supporting every manner of staging, from bloated opulence to scrupulous period detail to wholesale reimaginings that range from Don Giovanni set in present-day Spanish Harlem to an Abduction from the Seraglio that takes place on a train.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in Salzburg in 1756, began his professional musical career as a keyboard prodigy. By the time he reached the age of ten, his compositions and performances had been showcased in Vienna, France, England, and the Netherlands, and he had already begun impressing audiences by improvising recitatives and arias. His first complete dramatic work, the intermezzo Apollo and Hyacinthus , was premiered in 1767. Fast on its heels came the young composer's first opera buffa : La finta semplice , which had its premiere in Salzburg in 1769. Other teenage works for the stage include Bastien und Bastienne ; Mitridate, re di Ponto ; Ascanio in Alba ; Il sogno di Scipione ; Lucio Silla ; La finta giardiniera ; and Il re pastore .
While other operatic masters showed a tendency to specialize, Mozart proved himself skilled and prolific in a wide variety of musical forms. Il re pastore was followed by a brief hiatus from the stage; during this time he produced numerous concert arias and concertos, as well as the "Paris" Symphony . Even while regularly producing operas, he was simultaneously building a rich body of work that included chamber music, works for solo piano, choral works, symphonies, and concerti.
Mozart the operatic composer reemerged in 1781 with the opera seria Idomeneo , his second essay in the form. ( Mitridate was his first, and La clemenza di Tito , written for the 1791 Prague coronation of Leopold II, was to be his last.) His nearly 10 years of experience with dramatic writing is evident; in Idomeneo he neatly assimilates opera seria convention, the contemporary Gluckian fashion for choruses and ballets, and his own innovations, particularly in the area of orchestration.
Next he turned to the Singspiel , a German-language form that uses spoken dialogue to advance the action. Die Entführung aus dem Serail ( The Abduction from the Seraglio ), premiered in 1782, is colored with then-popular "janissary" musical touches, including "exotic" scales and an expanded percussion section. The following year, he turned his attention to two other libretti, L'oca del Cairo and Lo sposo deluso , but abandoned the projects before completing them. In 1786, he produced a brief comic sketch of life in the theater, Der Schauspieldirektor ( The Impresario ).
In the years that followed, Mozart responded to the growing Viennese vogue for opera buffa with the three works that have perhaps gained him the most lasting audience appreciation. Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Cosî fan tutte (1790), all with libretti by Lorenzo Da Ponte, enjoyed numerous international revivals in subsequent years, and remain among the most popular operas in the repertoire. Although categorized as opere buffe , these works were not without serious themes, characters, and music. Mozart's musical world accommodates and illuminates unforgettable characters, both "noble" and "comic," with arias of heart-stopping emotion, hilariously effective situational ensembles, and virtuosic vocal and orchestral writing?in other words, something for everyone. A prophetic 1829 New York review hailed Le nozze di Figaro as a work "equally fitted to all tastes, whether box, pit, or gallery." Indeed, the piece, along with Don Giovanni, has been a regular part of the American repertory from the early 19th century forward.
Although La clemenza di Tito was the last opera Mozart completed, the Singspiel Die Zauberflöte was the last one to reach the stage, with a 1791 Vienna premiere. This allegorical fairy tale has enjoyed the same popularity as the Da Ponte operas: It regularly joins the three Da Ponte operas on OPERA America's annual list of 20 most-produced operas. And, while Mozart's late masterpieces may eclipse his earlier works a bit, they are not the only works that have proven worthy of revival; in recent years, it has been possible to see Bastien und Bastienne , Mitridate , Lucio Silla , La finta giardiniera , and Il re pastore on stages around the world.
Aaron Copland offered these thoughts on Mozart's universal appeal: "[Mozart] was probably the most reasonable of the world's composers. It is the happy balance between flight and control, sensibility and self-discipline, simplicity and sophistication of style that is his particular province.... [Mozart] expresses himself with a spontaneity and breathtaking rightness that has never since been duplicated."
