Mozart

As part of Ian Page’s ground-breaking ‘MOZART 250’, Classical Opera presents a rare staging of Mozart’s first oratorio on the 250th anniversary of its premiere in March 1767. This remarkable work, composed when the composer was only eleven years old, is full of tender beauty, dynamism and descriptive flair, with the young composer’s innate sense of understanding of the human condition already shining through.

It will be staged by Thomas Guthrie – who in 2015 directed Classical Opera’s acclaimed production of Bach’s Adriano in Siria – and sung in Nigel Lewis’ irreverently witty and virtuosic English translation, specially commissioned by the company.

Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there had been a tradition of performing Jesuit school dramas during Lent, featuring allegorical and pedagogic stories from the Bible, from the lives of saints or from church history. Music played an increasingly prominent part in these dramas, and by the second half of the eighteenth century they had assumed a virtually operatic form.

It was common for the writing of such works to be divided up among a number of composers, and Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots offered Mozart his first significant opportunity to contribute to the musical life of the Salzburg court.

As a young drifter sleeps off his latest bout of hedonism, the Spirit of Christianity pleads with Justice and Compassion to save his soul and help him find deeper meaning in his life.

“When he dies, will friends be weeping, or will they think he’s only sleeping?”