Brussels is an attraction for much, very much. Including some of the least beautiful things that daylight should not see, but fortunately also many cultural events that should be seen by as many people as possible, whether or not in daylight or in the dimmed or undimmed light of a stage hall. The penultimate week of June is such a culture week that attracts Mozart lovers with the Midsummer Mozartiade.
THE annual crowd-puller is undoubtedly the Mozart opera that is programmed. This time the artistic direction chose Mitridate, Rè di Ponto. It was Mozart's first opera, although before that the then 14-year-old had already written three operas at age 12, namely Apollo et Hyacinthus, La Finta Semplice and Bastien und Bastienne. The teenager Wolfgang was, as it were, not making his debut, yet this composition, a first true serious commission, turned out to be a real ordeal.
It was not because of the composition itself and/or the libretto that Mozart had difficulties, but rather because of the whims of the singers, as director Eric Gobin and singers Pieter De Praetere and Dorine Mortelmans tell us just before the dress rehearsal on Wednesday evening, June 19. They do not hide their amazement and admiration for the young Mozart. How could such a young boy write such music? How could he perfectly translate such a mature world, even in archaic language, into notes? How was he able to push the singers to the limits of their abilities? Actually, he went one step further, you might say a leap beyond their demands. What difficulties could Mozart have had with melody, harmonization, orchestration or anything else? The misery he experienced while composing was that of pretentious singers, especially one of the tenors, who made enormous demands. Mozart had to write the roles very precisely according to their wishes and abilities. So he had to rewrite one role five times because the gentleman was not satisfied… Imagine that.
Would everything really be in order for the audience? The singers did have doubts about that, after all they were experienced, accustomed to adult composers who served the singers' every whim. What could such a pubescent boy manage and then achieve any success? So they had their plan B in their pocket; composer Gasparini's scores would be retrieved in time and sung in place of this young boy's stuff. Not so. The audience in Milan, where the opera premiered, went wild with delight – the performance rained encores – and applause would ring out no less than 20 times, but unfortunately not until the early 20th century. There were quite a few jealous people in the opera world of that time and they succeeded in consigning the opera to oblivion, despite its success.
It is, frankly admitted, striking how these three people, today in our cold age, speak with the greatest respect, more than 250 years after the creation of this work, about both the composition and the composer. It will lead to a performance that you will not soon forget…
Mitridate, re di Ponto by the 14-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is what is called an opera seria, in three acts (KV 87 [74a]). The premiere took place at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan. The libretto is by Vittorio Amedeo Cigna-Santi, based on the drama 'Mithridate' by Jean Racine translated into Italian by Giuseppe Parini. It is a dramatic story full of jealousy, tyranny, loyalty, disloyalty, honor and dishonor with a mixed ending where happiness and unhappiness go hand in hand, as it were, and tyranny can be replaced by new hope.
Especially from the second act onwards, Mozart becomes more himself, as you already know him from La Finta Semplice and Bastien und Bastienne and many other compositions. Due to the difficult collaboration with the pedantic singers, this work still hangs quite firmly in the Baroque, although the later Mozart is already clearly present. You have to try it, as a beginning adolescent, to translate not only the sometimes extremely emotionally charged emotions into coloraturas and runs, but especially to load them musically. He understood it all, took it as ordinary everyday things that he would 'simply jot down on paper'. There the genius was already at full work.
The performance according to artistic director Eric Gobin
Since the series of 20 performances at the time of creation, Mitridate has never been performed again according to the composer's wishes. After all, he wrote three castrato roles and castrati no longer exist… Nowadays this evil is remedied by having high roles sung by sopranos and alto roles (sometimes) by countertenors. Eric Gobin found a suitable countertenor in the person of Pieter De Praetere (Farnace) and the sopranino – a man who can sing as a soprano – would be represented by Dennis Orellana (Sifare). Only for Arbate did Gobin choose a mezzo-soprano, Sonia Sheridan Jaquelin. The other roles were filled with the appropriate voices: Mitridate by tenor Stefan Sbonnik, soprano Gianna Cañete Gallo portrayed Aspasia, Ismene was in the hands of soprano Dorine Mortelmans and tenor Mathis Van Cleynenbreugel took on the role of Marzio. All of them exceptionally capable singers who, very conscious of the text and faithful to the score, performed the individually very demanding roles smoothly and sometimes very strikingly.
Soprano Dennis Orellana
This still young singer (born in 2000 in Honduras) is a truly rare discovery who in his short career has already conquered some major stages. Bayreuth Baroque, the Scala of Milan, the Salzburger Festspiele: nothing modest for someone his age. He sings with extraordinary virtuosity, has a wide tessitura that reaches very high and the volume is astonishing. He masters all registers as effortlessly as anything, from the softest pianissimo to a triple forte and all of that according to the strictest musical demands. He is his role, nothing more, certainly nothing less. A singer to look forward to and you can assume that many will follow him, just as many once followed Alfred Deller, the 'first' countertenor. We had to get used to that, well then, so it will also be with the sopraninos: getting used to it until it becomes the most normal thing that they perform roles that were once written for men, men who were castrated around their 12th year for the sake of their beautiful boyish voice. Discover Dennis Orellana with us via this short fragment from the Bayreuth Baroque Festival 2023.
Since the story takes place on the coast of the peninsula we now know as Crimea, the link with today's events was quickly made. For this reason, the scenography was placed in a contemporary and minimalist setting. For a static opera with actually little action, there is not much to do with your hands and you have to be very creative in bringing some life to the stage while the singers deliver one aria after another. 22 arias full of bravura and repetitions, that is no small feat. Dramaturge Keith Tillotson took care of that.
The Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie supported the singers under the direction of Thibaut Lenaerts. An extra word for the translation of the archaic old Italian: Hannah Aelvoet was responsible for this. It should be said and written once in a while. The audience nowadays finds it quite normal that a board hangs above the stage where the text appears digitally. Just imagine dealing with such a translation…
For more information about the annual Midsummer Mozartiade, you will find the link to the website below. Look forward with us to what will be on the program next year.
