Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed Mitridate, re di Ponto at the tender age of fourteen. While it would be overly dismissive to describe the work as a youthful folly, it bears the tropes that distinguish his early forays into opera seria: namely, an increasingly outlandish plot, buffeted by one steeplechase aria after another. The vocal prowess required and the demand for a clear dramaturgical vision have kept this curiosity from becoming a repertory staple. Opera Philadelphia’s season-opening production suggests why that may still be the case, despite strong singing from an internationally renowned cast.
The nutshell plot of this opera, adapted by Mozart and Vittorio Amadeo Cigna-Santi from a play by Racine, concerns the eponymous ruler, who fakes his own death in battle as a means to spy on his sons. Upon his heralded return, he learns that both his boys have taken a shine to his betrothed, Aspasia, and spends much of the evening plotting his extravagant revenge. While it’s true that both progeny betray their father romantically, Sifare, Mitridate’s favorite son, remains loyal to the kingdom of Pontus, while the conniving Farnace secretly casts his lot with the Roman Empire.
Director Emma Griffin casts the proceedings as a dark comedy, often calling to mind contemporary television programs like Succession that put the inner workings of a family unit under an unforgiving spotlight. Mitridate’s kingdom becomes a sterile boardroom in Kaye Voyce’s scenic design, tended by silent supernumeraries dressed like hospital orderlies. (Voyce also did the variable costumes.) Griffin’s concept often leans too heavily into the humorously eccentric elements of the story, at the expense of the few true poignant moments. This approach renders the ultimate redemption of Mitridate and Farnace hollow – and it cheapens the abrupt shift toward seriousness in the production’s invented final image.
Although his acting occasionally veered toward stereotypes of the archly comedic villain, Lawrence Brownlee sang the title role with an especially gleaming tone, absolute freedom in its florid passagework and a complete lack of strain across the long evening. If anything, “Figlio, amico non più”, Mitridate’s dying acknowledgement of his wrongheadedness, found the tenor at his most vocally ardent. Debuting soprano Meredith Wohlgemuth matched Brownlee’s lyrical prowess, easily filling the Academy of Music with her silver-tipped instrument and sailing effortlessly to the role’s highest notes.
In his most significant assignment since becoming Opera Philadelphia’s general and artistic director two years ago, Anthony Roth Costanzo impressed as Farnace – particularly in the vocal stamina and compelling pathos he brought to “Già dagli occhi il velo è tolto”, Farnace’s painful realization that he’s been duped by Rome. If his head and chest registers knit together awkwardly in certain passages, he compensated with secure low notes and a pleasing tone. Similarly, as Aspasia, Brenda Rae’s impressive trill and solid command of pitch made up for a lack of vocal coloring in extended arias.
Nola Richardson acted with vivacity and sang with plangency as Ismene, the princess unhappily promised in marriage to Farnace, and Minghao Liu stood out as Marzio, Farnace’s envoy from Rome. (“Se di regnar”, Marzio’s third-act showpiece, earned one of the evening’s biggest ovations in Liu’s capable hands.) The singers all coped well with occasionally sluggish accompaniment from the pit, which didn’t always seem to follow them with precision. Conducted by Corrado Rovaris, the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra also struggled with intonation throughout this unfamiliar score, particularly in the brass accompaniment to Aspasia’s aria “Nel grave tormento”.
