Ser­en­ata in two acts K. 208 (1775)
Lib­retto: Pietro Meta­sta­s­io

Crit­ics were un­an­im­ous in their praise of the open­ing pro­duc­tion of the Moz­art 22 pro­ject at the Salzburg Fest­iv­al 2005: the premiere of the ser­en­ata "Il rè pastore" k.208. It was com­posed in early 1775 for the vis­it to Salzburg of Arch­duke Max­imili­an. As in "La finta giardini­era" of the pre­vi­ous year, it takes up the mo­tif of the tri­als of love and vir­tue in a pas­tor­al set­ting. The shep­herd Aminta un­ex­pec­tedly learns that he is the right­ful heir to a king­dom. Ini­tially de­lighted to be­come a king, Aminta loses his en­thu­si­asm when he learns he must marry Tamiri in­stead of his be­loved Elisa.

At 19, Moz­art was no be­gin­ner, and his next work was to be "Ido­me­neo", which is gen­er­ally con­sidered to be his first op­er­at­ic mas­ter­piece. In "Il rè pastore" it is amaz­ing how Moz­art man­ages to in­fuse life in­to ri­gid con­ven­tions of the op­era ser­ia genre. There is dra­mat­ic im­pact and emo­tion­al depth, for ex­ample Aminta’s rondo "L’amerò, sarò cost­ante" with ob­bligato solo vi­ol­in; and there are poignant de­pic­tions of in­ner tor­ment as in Agen­ore’s great aria sup­por­ted by four naturla horns. The mu­sic is a pana­orama of con­trast­ing col­ours, a kal­eido­scope of chang-ing moods that are giv­en a sharp and bril­liant pro­file in this per­form­ance.

Kres­imir Spicer, Aless­andro
An­ette Dasch, Aminta
Marl­is Petersen, Elisa
Arpné Rah­dji­an, Tamiri
An­dreas Karasiak, Agen­ore
Se­basti­an Ham­a­nn, Vi­ol­in Ob­bligato

Balthas­ar-Neu­mann-En­semble

Thomas Hen­gel­brock, con­duct­or
Thomas Hen­gel­brock, stage dir­ect­or
Stefan Aglas­sing­er, video dir­ect­or

Re­cord­ing dates: 22.07.| 27.07.| 29.07.2006
Ven­ue: Great Hall of Salzburg Uni­versity