Mozart Opera

Riccardo Muti had made a sensational Salzburg debut in 1971, and this Cosi fan tutte was his first Mozart opera at the festival. It was acclaimed by both the general public and international critics, who were virtually unanimous in their praise of the aesthetic quality of the production. Muti was praised for his authoritative approach to Mozart's music, while the remarkably homogeneous team of international soloists was equally applauded. The singers form an admirably cohesive ensemble and all of them are outstanding Mozart singers.

Recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in June 2004, le Nozze de Figaro was unanimously acclaimed by public and critics alike as a Mozart opera landmark. Director Jean-Louis Martinoty brings an elegantly intelligent narrative sense to an interpretation in which the protagonists, against a backdrop of magnificent canvases of 18th- century inspiration, are dressed by Sylvie de Segonzac in a palette in which every shade is perfect.

The young Latvian mezzo Elina Garanca makes her recital debut on the label with a delightful programme of Mozart arias, interweaving five of Mozart’s brilliant and demanding concert arias, including the supremely taxing ‘Ch’io mi scordi di te’ with extracts from La finta giardiniera, La clemenza di Tito and Così fan tutte. Well-known for her engaging stage performances as Dorabella Elina has chosen also to include Fiordiligi’s dazzling ‘Come scoglio’.

La Clemenza di Tito can be rather bloodless, but in this instance an elegant, vocally impeccable cast makes up for much of the lack of drama in John Pritchard’s conducting. Werner Hollweg’s pingy tenor cuts through the orchestra brilliantly, and he uses his voice very well. Teresa Cahill and Anne Howells are an attractive-sounding pair as the young lovers, and Robert Lloyd is typically strong as Publio. The honors here go to Yvonne Minton’s anguished, beautifully accurate Sesto, capturing an often under-valued mezzo in one of her best roles. Janet Baker is Vitella, bringing fire and passion to her melodramatic utterances and immaculate singing to a very challenging role. The sound is excellent.

For anyone compiling a directory of the ‘greatest recordings’ of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra some nominations are easy to classify. Sir Thomas Beecham’s 1937/8 Berlin recording of Mozart’s The Magic Flute is certainly one of them. Originally re-mastered in 1991 it is pleasing to have this Nimbus set available in the catalogue…
– Michael Cookson, MusicWeb International

With the belief that “No opera loses so much as Die Zauberflöte if one strips it of its drama and that means, above all, the spoken dialogue,” René Jacobs’ agenda in Die Zauberflöte is to rehabilitate the reputation of Schikaneder’s libretto. At the heart of his reassesment is the idea that Schikaneder and Mozart’s Masonic message is deeper and more carefully presented than we have thought. He suggests that seemingly silly or inconsistent aspects of the story are put there as intentional false paths as the audience, not only the prince and the bird catcher, undergoes its own trials of initiation. The opera’s symbolism and structure are explained in convincing detail in an essay in the booklet by the Egyptologist and Mozart researcher Jan Assman.

Raimondi has advantages: the dark coloring of his voice, the vocal menace, the power of his bass." The three ladies - especially the Te Kanawa has become livelier, more insistent - Maazel has the singers and Mozart firmly in hand.

– Hermes Lexikon

Between Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the advent of the famous ‘Da Ponte trilogy’, Mozart threw himself frantically into the search for the right libretto, capable of taking the spectator to lands still unexplored where the drama and the psychology of the characters would be sublimated by the music. Hence, in the years between 1782 and 1786, he set up a veritable laboratory for dramatic music: a musical corpus of concert arias, sketches, and stylistic exercises like the canon – here brilliantly organised as an imaginary dramma giocoso in three scenes, each heralding in its own way one of the summits to come: Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così.