Mozart in Italy, part 2: "We have won the first battle"
Jane Glover, Mozart in Italy: Coming of Age in the Land of Opera. Picador, 2023. 262 pages. Image source: The Hanbury Agency
This is the second in a series of posts on Mozart's Italian journeys; for the previous post please see Mozart in Italy, part 1: "We shall not become rich."
Bologna to Milan, 20 July – 18 October 1770
Their seven weeks' stay at the country estate of Count Pallavicini aided the healing of Leopold's leg, severely injured in the carriage accident on the return to Rome in late June. On 30 August, in the third week of their stay with the Count, Leopold was mobile enough to travel into Bologna with Wolfgang to see a performance given by the Accademia Filarmonica in which ten different composers each set a part of the Mass and Vespers. At the performance the Mozarts encountered the music historian Charles Burney, father of the novelist Fanny Burney, who was travelling to gather information for his books The Present State of Music in France and Italy (1771) and A General History of Music (1776). The Mozarts had first met Burney in London four years previously, when Wolfgang was ten years old.
Charles Burney by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1781. Image source: National Portrait Gallery NPG 3884
Burney wrote of their reunion at the Accademia Filarmonica performance,
There was a good deal of company, and among the rest who sh[oul]d I meet but the celebrated little German, Mozart, who in 1766 astonished all hearers in London by his premature musical talents. . .The little man is grown considerably, but is still a little man. . .He is now at the age of 12 [really 14], engaged to compose an opera for Milan. . .[I] shall be anxious to know how this extraordinary boy acquits himself in setting words in a language not his own. But there is no musical excellence I do not expect from his extraordinary quickness and talents, under the guidance of so able a musician as his father. [1]
On 1 October the Mozarts moved back into Bologna, where they stayed for the following two weeks and met daily with the great music teacher Padre Giovanni Battista Martini. On 9 October Wolfgang took the Accademia Filarmonica entrance exam: placed by himself in a locked room, he was given the task of setting a plainchant antiphon in four-part counterpoint. Leopold wrote to his wife Maria Anna,
When Wolfgang had finished it, it was examined by the Censores and all the Kapellmeisters and Compositores. Then a vote was taken, which was done by means of white and black balls. As all the balls were white, Wolfgang was called in and all the members clapped their hands as he entered and congratulated him, and the Princeps of the Academy informed him, on behalf of the company, that he had passed the examination. . .All the members were surprised that Wolfgang had finished his task so quickly, seeing that many candidates had spent three hours over an antiphon of three lines. For I must tell you that it is not at all an easy task, as in this kind of composition many things are not allowed and of these Wolfgang had been told previously. Yet he had finished it in less than half an hour. . .This distinction does Wolfgang all the more credit as the Academia Bonnoniensis is more than a hundred years old and, apart from Padre Martini and other eminent Italians, only the most distinguished citizens of other countries are members of it. [2]
With the support of Padre Martini, the Accademia's minimum age (20) was waived, as was the requirement that candidates should have studied at the Accademia for one year; Martini also paid Wolfgang's admittance fee.
Padre Giovanni Battista Martini by Angelo Crescimbeni, c. 1770. Image source: Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica, Bologna
On 13 October the Mozarts departed Bologna for Milan. Though rains and a high river delayed them at Parma, they arrived on 18 October.
Milan: Mitridate, re di Ponto, 18 October 1770 – 4 February 1771
During their stay in Bologna, Wolfgang had finally begun writing the recitatives for Mitridate. Mitridate (the historical Mithridates VI) is the ruler of Pontus, a kingdom on the southern and eastern coasts of the Black Sea, in 63 B.C. He is engaged in the latest in a series of wars against the Romans, who are expanding eastward as Mitridate attempts to extend his kingdom westward. Returning from defeat in battle, Mitridate learns the unwelcome news that his betrothed queen Aspasia is in love with his younger son Sifare, who loves her in return. Meanwhile, Mitridate's eldest son Farnace (the historical Pharnaces II), although betrothed to the Parthian princess Ismene, wants both Mitridate's throne and Aspasia. Conflict, and conflicted feelings, ensue.
According to the contract signed in Milan in March the recitatives were due in October, leaving Wolfgang less than two weeks after their arrival to complete them. On 20 October he wrote to his mother in a postscript to a letter from Leopold, "I cannot write much, for my fingers are aching from composing so many recitatives. Mamma, I beg you to pray for me, that my opera may go well and that we may be happy together again." Two weeks later he signed a postscript to his sister Nannerl, "I am, as always, your brother Wolfgang Mozart, whose fingers are tired, tired, tired, tired [Müdhe Müdhe Müedes müde sind] from writing." [3]
After completing the recitatives, Wolfgang turned to the opera's 23 arias, plus a duet and a concluding ensemble for the surviving characters. The final cast list for the opera was slightly different from the list the Mozarts had received in Bologna.
Cast of Mitridate, re di Ponto, Milan, 1770. From the Thomas Fisher Libretti Collection, University of Toronto. Image source: Internet Archive
| Mitridate, King of Pontus and other kingdoms, in love with Aspasia | Guglielmo D’Ettore [tenor] |
| Aspasia, betrothed to Mitridate and already declared Queen | Antonia Bernasconi [prima donna, soprano] |
| Sifare, son of Mitridate and Stratonica, in love with Aspasia | Pietro Benedetti, known as Sartorino [primo uomo, soprano castrato] |
| Farnace, eldest son of Mitridate, in love with the same [Aspasia] | Giuseppe Cicognani [alto castrato] |
| Ismene, daughter of the King of Parthia, in love with Farnace | Anna Francesca Varese [seconda donna, soprano] |
| Marzio, Roman tribune and ally of Farnace | Gaspare Bassano [tenor] |
| Arbate, governor of Nymphaea | Pietro Muschietti [soprano castrato] |
In writing arias for this cast Wolfgang had the advantage of having already heard several of them sing. D'Ettore and Bernasconi had probably sung in Wolfgang's audition concert in Milan the previous spring, and he had seen Cicognani perform both in Michelangelo Valentini's setting of Metastasio's La Clemenza di Tito in Cremona in January, and in the concert at Count Pallavicini's in Bologna in March. After seeing the opera Wolfgang had written to his sister Nannerl of Cicognani that he possessed "a delightful voice and a beautiful cantabile." [4]
Wolfgang started with the most important arias: those for the prima donna Antonia Bernasconi, whose role is the emotional center of the opera. But it wasn't long before the Mozarts encountered intrigue. Leopold wrote to Maria Anna,
. . .you will be astounded to hear what a storm we have been through, to weather which presence of mind and constant thought were necessary. God be praised, we have won the first battle and have defeated an enemy, who brought to the prima donna’s house all the arias which she was to sing in our opera and tried to persuade her not to sing any of Wolfgang’s. We have seen them all and they are all new, but neither she nor we know who composed them. But she gave that wretch a flat refusal, and she is now beside herself with delight at the arias which Wolfgang has composed to suit her. [5]
In fact, as Leopold later discovered, the arias were from Quirino Gasparini's version of the same opera, which had been performed in Turin three years previously. Bernasconi had not performed in Turin, and so the arias may indeed have been unknown to her. But it was common practice for singers to occasionally insert into one opera a preferred aria by a different composer. Rather than giving Gasparini's versions a flat refusal, Bernasconi had decided to try Wolfgang's first, after which she declared that she was "infinitely pleased with her arias." [6]
It was also common for arias to be revised by the composer in consultation with the singer. Arias were custom-written to display each singer's strengths and disguise their weaknesses. And the singers had, if not always complete veto power, a great deal of input. Aspasia's entrance aria "Al destin che la minaccia" (From the fate that threatens me / Free, O God, my oppressed heart) exists in two versions. The second, in the words of Jane Glover, "is truly splendid, with energetic coloratura and a wide range (she evidently had a wonderful top C, which Wolfgang happily exploited)." [7]
Here is the second and final version, sung by Yvonne Kenny accompanied by the Concentus Musicus Wien conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, from the 1986 film of Mitridate directed by Jean-Pierre Ponelle:
Aspasia's Act II aria "Nel grave tormento" (In the great torment which oppresses my breast), in which she expresses "the anguished conflict between her love for Sifare and her duty to Mitridate," also exists in two versions: an unfinished first attempt abandoned after a substantial 40 measures, and a second version composed with "much greater confidence and fluency." [8]
Yvonne Kenny performing "Nel grave tormento" from the 1986 film of Mitridate:
In Act III, Aspasia's love for Sifare has been revealed to Mitridate, who sends her a chalice of poison. Wolfgang composed a scene which shifts from recitative to accompanied recitative leading into a cavatina (a short aria without a da capo repeat). Glover writes that this scena is "of exceptional maturity, portraying with real emotional authenticity Apasia's Juliet-like vacillation between resolving to take her poison and fearing its reality." Wolfgang highlighted Bernasconi's "impressively wide vocal range as well as her sublime lyric gifts." [9]
Yvonne Kenny performing "Ah ben ne fui persaga!. . .Pallid' ombre" from the 1986 film of Mitridate:
On the evidence of alternative aria versions, the tenor singing Mitridate, Guglielmo D’Ettore, was the most demanding member of the cast: there are no fewer than five versions of his entrance aria, "Se di lauri il crine adorno." The final version is unconventional, a flowing andante showcasing D'Ettore's wide vocal range; Burney wrote of him that he was "the best singer of his kind on the operatic stage." [10]
Gösta Winberg performing "Se di lauri il crine adorno" (If I do not return crowned with laurel, faithful shores) from the 1986 film of Mitridate:
D'Ettore had sung the role of Mitridate in Turin three years earlier, and apparently he decided to perform Gasparini's version of his third-act aria "Vado incontro el fato estremo" (I go to meet my final destiny), rather than Mozart's. It's a substitution that has continued to the present day. Stanley Sadie writes that Gasparini's version "has continued to be sung in modern revivals—it is erroneously printed as Mozart's own in all published scores, with Mozart's original setting relegated to an appendix." [11]
The primo uomo Pietro Benedetti came to Milan a month later than other singers due to another engagement. He finally arrived on 1 December, just three and a half weeks before opening night. In late November Leopold had written to Maria Anna,
Wolfgang has his hands full now, as the time is getting on and he has only composed one aria for the primo uomo, because the latter has not yet arrived and because Wolfgang refuses to do the work twice over and prefers to wait for his arrival so as to fit the costume to his figure. [12]
Wolfgang was wise to wait until the singer had arrived, but that did not prevent him from having to do his work twice over—or three times, in the case of Sifare's Act II aria of farewell to Aspasia, "Lungi da te, mio ben" (Far from you, my love).
He also had to rework the duet between Sifare and Aspasia that concludes Act II, "Se viver non degg'io" (If I cannot live), after their mutual love has been discovered by Mitridate. Glover writes that it is "the musical highlight of the whole opera. . .this [second] version on which they all agreed was altogether richer, with four horns rather than the usual two in the accompaniment, and—significantly perhaps for the fledgling composer—was in the key of A major, which very much became the key of passion and seduction in all Wolfgang's later operas." On 15 December Leopold wrote to Maria Anna that "the prima donna and the primo uomo. . .are simply enchanted with their duet. The primo uomo has actually said that if this duet does not go down [well], he will let himself be castrated again." [13]
Ann Murray (Sifare) and Yvonne Kenny (Aspasia) performing "Se viver non degg'io" from the 1986 film of Mitridate:
| SIFARE: | SIFARE: |
| Se viver non degg’io, Se tu morir pur dei, Lascia, bell’idol mio, Ch’io mora almen con te. |
If I cannot live, If you, too, must die, Let me, my beloved, Die together with you. |
| ASPASIA: | ASPASIA: |
| Con questi accenti, oh Dio! Cresci gli affanni miei, Troppo tu vuoi, ben mio, Troppo tu chiedi a me. |
With these words, oh God! You worsen my suffering, You want too much, my love, You ask too much of me. |
| SIFARE: | SIFARE: |
| Dunque. . . | Then. . . |
| ASPASIA: | ASPASIA: |
| Deh taci. | Say no more. |
| SIFARE: | SIFARE: |
| Oh Dei! | Oh Gods! |
| ASPASIA, SIFARE: | ASPASIA, SIFARE: |
| Ah, che tu sol, tu sei, Che mi dividi il cor. Barbare stelle ingrate, Ah, m’uccidesse adesso L’eccesso del dolor! |
Ah, you are the only one Who shares my heart. Cruel, ungrateful stars, If only this overwhelming sorrow Would kill me now! |
The 14-year-old Wolfgang not only composed the opera, but would lead the 60 musicians of the Teatro Regio Ducale orchestra from the first harpsichord during rehearsals and for the first three performances. On 22 December Leopold wrote Maria Anna and Nannerl that the first rehearsal in the theatre three days earlier "went off very well" and "both the singers and the orchestra are evidently quite satisfied." He reported that for the performances Wolfgang would be wearing a new suit, as over the past year he'd outgrown the clothes he'd brought from Salzburg:
Picture to yourselves little Wolfgang in a scarlet suit, trimmed with gold braid and lined with sky-blue satin. The tailor is starting to make it to-day. Wolfgang will wear this suit during the first three days when he is seated at the clavier. The one which was made for him in Salzburg is too short by half a foot and in any case is too tight and too small.
But disturbing news had come from Naples. "I hope at least that Wolfgang will not have the bad luck of Signor [Niccolò] Jommelli, whose second opera at Naples [Demofoönte] has failed so miserably that people are even wanting to substitute another; and Jommelli is a most celebrated master, of whom the Italians make a terrible fuss." [14] Audiences could be fickle, and reject even the work of long-established composers. Now all that remained was to hear their verdict on Mitridate.
Title page of the libretto of Mitridate, re di Ponto, Milan, 1770. From the Thomas Fisher Libretti Collection, University of Toronto. Image source: Internet Archive
Three days after Mitridate's première on St. Stephen's Day (26 December 1770, the beginning of the 1771 Carnival season), Leopold wrote to Maria Anna,
God be praised, the first performance of the opera took place on the 26th and won universal applause; and two things, which have never yet happened in Milan, occurred on that evening. First of all, contrary to the custom of a first night, an aria of the prima donna was repeated, though usually at a first performance the audience never call out "fuora". Secondly, after almost all the arias, with the exception of a few at the end, there was extraordinary applause and cries of: "Evviva il Maestro! Evviva il Maestrino!"
On the 27th two arias of the prima donna were repeated. As it was Thursday and there was Friday to follow, the management had to try to cut down the encores; otherwise the duet would also have been repeated, as the audience were so enthusiastic. . .How we wished that you and Nannerl could have had the pleasure of seeing the opera! Within living memory there has never been such eagerness to see the first opera as there has been this time. [15]
Audience enthusiasm may have been flagging towards the end of the opera, not because Wolfgang's musical inspiration had waned, but because by then it was midnight and they'd been in the theater for six full hours. Each act of Wolfgang's opera was followed by a ballet by another composer, Francesco Caselli, who was also one of the 28-member dance company.
Ballets composed by Francesco Caselli performed during Mitridate, re di Ponto, Milan, 1770. From the Thomas Fisher Libretti Collection, University of Toronto. Image source: Internet Archive
The ballets had their own scenic backdrops and, except for the final ballet, told stories with only a metaphorical relationship to the opera: following Act I, "The Judgment of Paris" set in an Arcadian landscape; following Act II, "The Triumph of Virtue over Love" set in an imperial Chinese palace; and following Act III, a celebration of the marriages of Aspasia and of Ismene with their lovers. Leopold wrote to his wife that "The ballets, however, are now to be shortened, for they last two hours at least." [16]
After the third performance on 29 December the Mozarts continued to attend the opera, with Wolfgang joining his father in the audience instead of leading the orchestra. On 5 January Leopold wrote to Maria Anna,
I can hardly find time to write to you, for every day we go to the opera and this means going to bed at half past one or even two o’clock in the morning, as we must have something to eat after the performance. So we get up late, and the day, which is short enough as it is, becomes, in consequence, even shorter. . .Our son’s opera is still running, is still winning general applause and is, as the Italians say, alle stelle![Literally, "to the stars"; figuratively, "soaring sky-high."] Since the third performance we two have been listeners and spectators, sometimes in the parterre [orchestra level] and sometimes in the boxes or palchi, where everyone is eager to speak to the Signore Maestro and see him at close quarters. During the performance we walk about here and there, wherever we like. For the Maestro was obliged to conduct the opera from the orchestra only on the first three evenings, when Maestro Lampugnani accompanied at the second clavier. But now, as Wolfgang is no longer conducting, Lampugnani plays the first clavier and Maestro Melchior Chiesa the second one.
Leopold followed this description of their evenings with an understandable surge of parental pride at his son's accomplishment:
If about fifteen or eighteen years ago, when Lampugnani had already composed so much in England and Melchior Chiesa in Italy, and I had heard their operas, arias and symphonies, someone had said to me that these masters would take part in the performance of my son's composition, and, when he left the clavier, would have to sit down and accompany his music, I should have told him that he was fit for a lunatic asylum. [17]
Mitridate would run for a total of 22 performances—a striking success, particularly for the first opera of the season. News of its enthusiastic reception, and of Wolfgang's induction into the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna in October, must have reached Verona. On 11 January Leopold received a letter from Pietro Lugiati, who had commissioned Wolfgang's portrait during their visit there in January 1770 (see Mozart in Italy, part 1), that Wolfgang had been voted into the Accademia Filarmonica of Verona as well.
As the run of Mitridate was nearing its end, on 14 January the Mozarts left Milan for a short visit to Turin. There they met the composer Quirino Gasparini, whose Mitridate arias of three years previously had been offered to Antonia Bernasconi in place of Wolfgang's. They also met the composer Giovanni Paisiello, whose opera Annibale in Torino (Hannibal in Turin, 1771) was just then having its première in Turin's Teatro Regio; Leopold called it "magnificent." [18]
The Mozarts returned to Milan at the end of January to complete their packing and finally begin their journey home. On 2 February they were invited to a farewell dinner at Count Firmian's. It's likely that a new commission was discussed with him, because less than a month later they received a contract for the first opera of Milan's 1773 Carnival season, opening on 26 December 1772. There may have been suggestions that a second new commission might be forthcoming for later in the current year, but clearly negotiations were still continuing. Still, as they left Milan on 4 February, they must have been extremely gratified at the honors, commissions and success that had resulted from their Italy trip.
It wasn't over yet: their next destination was Venice.
Next time: Venice, more commissions, and home
- Quoted from the unpublished manuscript version of The Present State of Music in Percy Scholes, The Great Dr. Burney: His Life, His Travels, His Works, His Family, and His Friends, Greenwood Press, 1971 (reprint of Oxford University Press, 1948), p. 170.
- Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 117, 20 October 1770, in Emily Anderson, editor and translator, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, MacMillan and Co., 1938, pp. 243–244.
- Mozart to his mother, Letter 117a, 20 October 1770, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, pp. 244–245; Mozart to his sister, 3 November 1770, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 249. Emily Anderson translates "Müdhe Müdhe Müedes müde sind" rather colorlessly as a single "tired."
- Mozart to his sister, Letter 77a, 26 January 1770, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 162. In Letters of Mozart and His Family Emily Anderson states that the version of La Clemenza di Tito seen by the Mozarts in Cremona was composed by Hasse, but in Mozart: The Early Years, 1756–1781, W.W. Norton, 2006, pp. 186–187, Stanley Sadie attributes the opera to Valentini. In the final months of his life Mozart would compose an opera to this same libretto to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. Far from exhibiting the clemency of the opera's title, Leopold rescinded the freedom of Bohemian serfs granted by his brother Joseph II.
- Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 120, 10 November 1770, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, pp. 249–250.
- Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 121, 17 November 1770, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 251.
- Jane Glover, Mozart in Italy: Coming of Age in the Land of Opera. Picador, 2023, p. 121.
- Glover, Mozart in Italy, p. 121.
- Glover, Mozart in Italy, p. 121–122.
- Quoted in Stanley Sadie, Mozart: The Early Years, 1756–1781, W.W. Norton, 2006, p. 219.
- Sadie, Mozart: The Early Years, 1756–1781, pp. 219–220.
- Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 122, 24 November 1770, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 252.
- Jane Glover, Mozart in Italy, p. 125; Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 125, 15 December 1770, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 256.
- Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 126, 22 December 1770, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, pp. 257–258. For a description of Jommelli's first opera for Naples in May, Armida Abbandonata, and the Mozarts' encounters with the composer, please see Mozart in Italy, part 1.
- Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 127, 29 December 1770, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 259.
- Same as note 13.
- Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 129, 5 January 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, pp. 262–263. Giovanni Battista Lampugnani was appointed as the resident composer at the King's Theatre in London in 1743, and remained there until 1745, when he returned to his native Italy. Over his lifetime he composed more than 30 operas, and had been appointed harpsichordist at the Teatro Regio Ducale in 1758. Burney wrote of his London opera Alfonso (1744), "there is a graceful gaiety in the melody of his quick songs, and an elegant tenderness in the slow." See Michael F. Robinson, revised by Fabiola Maffei and Rossella Garibbo, "Lampugnani, Giovanni Battista (ii)" in Grove Music Online (https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.15926). Of Melchiorre Chiesa, Burney wrote during his visit to Milan in 1770 that "Chiesa and Monza seem and are said to be the two best composers for the stage here at present." See "Chiesa, Melchiorre" in Grove Music Online (https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.05576).
- Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 131, 2 February 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 265.
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