By the time Mozart (1756-1791) was 17, he had already completed 8 dramatic scores, and soprano Marie-Eve Munger has assembled nine works that illustrate precocious genius, assisted by an ensemble of period instruments led by Philippe Bourque. These arias were composed between 1766 and 1772, when Mozart was 10 to 16 years old.
Mozart, 16, composed Il sogno di Scipione, K, 126, based on a text by Cicero. The Roman general dreams that Constancy will forever resist the onslaughts of fortune. Virtuosic, the ornamental aria features virtuoso string work and vocal leaps in diminished intervals.
La finta semplice, K. 51, written when Mozart was 13, demonstrates Mozart’s gift in comic style. “Amoretti, che ascosi” is scored for bassoons and violas. Rosina reveals her love in a style of birdsong. “Colla bocca” with flutes is a song to seduction, love without a heart.
Mozart was 11 when he composed Die Schuldigkeit der ersten Gebots, K. 35, an allegorical aria about duty to the First Commandment. It is Mozart’s earliest contribution in dramatic form to the Salzburg court.
Twelve-year-old Mozart set music to a text by Rousseau for his Vienna singspiel Bastien und Batienne, K. 50. Highly pathetic in character, the aria “Mein leibster Freund” finds Bastienne’s expressing despair at having been abandoned by her lover Bastien.
The concert aria “O temerario Arbace!” K. 79 is a product of 10-year-old Mozart. A son is willing to sacrifice himself for his father, loyal to the point of refusing to denounce the hand that condemns him. With his last farewell, he bids his father console those who love the doomed Arbace.
Mozart, at 13, traveled to Milan, Italy, where he wrote his first opera seria for Count Firmian, Mitridate, King of Ponto, K. 87, based on a tragedy by Racine. In the aria “Al destin che la minaccia,” Aspasia begs one of two brothers, Sifare, to protect her from the unwanted advances of brother, Farnace. When the death of King Mitridate is revealed as a trick to test his sons’ loyalties, Aspasia sings “Nel grave tormento” to express her divided emotions between love and duty. When Midriate’s own pursuit of Aspasia is rebuffed, he brings poison to her, which she would drink to join Sifare in the next world. The aria, “Pallid’ombra,” demonstrates an emotional complexity well beyond the ken of most 14-year-old creative persons.
In 1771, Mozart composed the theatrical serenade Ascanio in Alba, K. 111, a sparking, virtuosic divertissement for Archduke Ferdinand.
With his opera Lucia Silla of 1772, Mozart matures as a composer, to the point of introducing elements of sturm und drang (storm and stress) of early Romanticism into his work. Silla, a brutal dictator, lusts after Giunia, whose father Silla has slain. Rejected, Silla explodes in anger, threatening Giunia and her beloved Cecilio with death. The aria, “Fra i pensier,” depicts the anguish of imprisoned Giuniam, who believes she and Cecilio are doomed, only to unite after death. The accompanied recitative, “In un istante” and aria “Parto, m’affretto” reveals Giunia’s decision to plead to the senate for mercy. Both the soprano and the orchestra are equal partners in expressing despair and panic.