Mozart's opera "Mitridate" (composed at 14)

[Lance]

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com ... _QL65_.jpg
Decca 460 772, 3 CDs, published 1999.

Here's an opera I've heard primarily excerpts from, and when Decca brought out all of Mozart's operas in one big box [478 1600], I didn't pay much attention to Mitridate. Traveling along listening to Sirius/XM radio the other day, I heard a marvelous excerpt sung by Cecilia Bartoli. It's in three acts and the Decca recording features Giuseppe Sabbatini, Natalie Dessay, Bartoli, and the much younger Juan Diego Florez, among others. It was successful in Italy where Mozart wrote the opera and conducted more than 20 performances (Mozart only 14!). I am uncertain if the Met or other major opera company has performed it. The opera runs about 174 minutes. So Mozart at 14 giving us a serious opera lasting almost three hours! Still amazing.

Lenny, John F, anybody ... how does this opera strike you?

[John F]

Most of Mozart's operas from his early teens (and earlier!) are musically pretty much interchangeable; it wasn't until "Il Re Pastore" that they began to be memorable. For me "Mitridate" stands out among his early operas, without suggesting the great musical dramatist he was to become.