Mitridate, re di Ponto, K. 87, was written by Mozart in 1770 when he was 14 years old; it was his first opera seria , dealing with the Pontic king named in the title, the intrigues surrounding him, and his struggles against Roman encroachment (he commits suicide in the end rather than fortifying himself with poison as in A.E. Housman's poem). The work provided Mozart with one of his first hits, and it is positively exploding with ambition. Not everything works, but enough of it does, and the opera is an exciting ride. The ...
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Mitridate, re di Ponto, K. 87, was written by Mozart in 1770 when he was 14 years old; it was his first opera seria , dealing with the Pontic king named in the title, the intrigues surrounding him, and his struggles against Roman encroachment (he commits suicide in the end rather than fortifying himself with poison as in A.E. Housman's poem). The work provided Mozart with one of his first hits, and it is positively exploding with ambition. Not everything works, but enough of it does, and the opera is an exciting ride. The arias push the singers to their limits, and the recitatives begin to show Mozart's gift for characterization. After decades or really centuries of obscurity, the opera has engaged the attention of various conductors, including Roger Norrington, Ádám Fischer, and most recently Ian Page and his Classical Opera Orchestra in his ongoing treatment of Mozart's operas. Listeners can take their pick from among these quite distinct approaches; Page is more conventionally Mozartian, and...
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