APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS CLASSICAL OPERA IAN PaGE (CONDUCTOR) Performance Material: New Mozart Edition (NMA) by kind permission of Bärenreiter-Verlag Kassel · Basel · London · New York · Praha Recorded at Blackheath Halls, London, UK from 13th to 15th August 2011 Produced and engineered by Philip Hobbs Post-production by Julia Thomas, Finesplice, UK Design by Nick Trivuncic Cover image by Debbie Coates Recording session photography by Dr Stephen Page, www.fatkoala.biz Latin consultant and English translation of libretto: Dennis Flynn German translations: Barbara Lester, Wiebke Thormählen French translations: Mireille Ellington, Michèle Fajtmann Italian translations: Dr Alice Bellini The cello realisations in the recitatives are a result of Joseph Crouch’s research fellowship at The University of Southampton, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Orchestra playing on period instruments at A = 430 Hz We are immensely grateful to the ‘Apollo et Hyacinthus recording syndicate’: George & Efthalia Koukis, Michael & Harriet Maunsell, Anthony Simpson & Susan Boster, Michael & Rosemary Warburg, Ian & Juliet Odgers, Bob & Laura Cory, Tony Wingate, Kevin Lavery, Kate Bingham & Jesse Norman, Joanne Koukis & Samuel Robinson, Georgios Koukis-Robinson, Stefano D’Anna, David & Hilary Watson and Janet Street-Porter. We would also like to thank the members of The Amadeus Society, and all the other individuals who generously gave to this project. Special thanks to: George & Efthalia Koukis, Sir Vernon & Lady Ellis, Malcolm Greenhalgh, Dennis Flynn, Dr Stephen Page, Emanuele Moris, Ed Whiting and WeDidThis, Hannah Taylor & Simon Wall of Tall Wall Media, Benedict Warren and Richard Ellington. 2 MOZART / APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791) APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS, K.38 Latin intermedium in three parts (1767) Libretto by RUFINUS WIDL (1731-1798) OEBALUS King of Laconia ANDREW KENNEDY tenor MELIA daughter of Oebalus KLARA EK soprano HYACINTHUS son of Oebalus SOPHIE BEVAN soprano APOLLO guest of Oebalus LAWRENCE ZAZZO countertenor ZEPHYRUS friend of Hyacinthus CHRISTOPHER AINSLIE countertenor TWO PRIESTS OF APOLLO MARCUS FARNSWORTH baritone DAVID SHIPLEY bass THE ORCHESTRA OF CLASSICAL OPERA Leader: Matthew Truscott Continuo: Steven Devine (harpsichord), Joseph Crouch (cello), Cecelia Bruggemeyer (double bass) IAN PAGE (conductor) MOZART / APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS 3 4 MOZART / APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS, K.38 PROLOGUS Page 1. Intrada 2:41 54 2. Recitativo: Amice! iam parata sunt omnia (Hyacinthus, Zephyrus, Oebalus, Melia) 2:53 54 3. No. 1, Chorus: Numen o Latonium (Chorus, Oebalus) 4:26 58 4. Recitativo: Heu me! periimus! (Melia, Oebalus, Hyacinthus, Zephyrus) 1:24 60 5. No. 2, Aria: Saepe terrent Numina (Hyacinthus) 7:48 62 6. Recitativo: Ah Nate! vera loqueris (Oebalus, Apollo, Hyacinthus, Melia, Zephyrus) 3:04 62 7. No. 3, Aria: Iam pastor Apollo (Apollo) 3:46 68 CHORUS I 8. Recitativo: Amare numquid Filia (Oebalus, Melia) 1:49 70 9. No. 4, Aria: Laetari, iocari (Melia) 6:39 72 10. Recitativo: Rex! de salute Filii (Zephyrus, Oebalus, Melia) 5:22 74 11. No. 5, Aria: En! duos conspicis (Zephyrus) 3:08 82 12. Recitativo: Heu! Numen! ecce! (Zephyrus, Melia, Apollo) 2:05 82 13. No. 6, Duetto: Discede crudelis! (Melia, Apollo) 6:22 86 CHORUS II 14. Recitativo accompagnato: Non est – Quis ergo Nate! (Hyacinthus, Oebalus) 2:35 88 15. No. 7, Aria: Ut navis in aequore luxuriante (Oebalus) 6:16 90 16. Recitativo: Quocumque me converto (Melia, Oebalus) 2:56 92 17. No. 8, Duetto: Natus cadit, atque Deus (Oebalus, Melia) 5:42 96 18. Recitativo: Rex! me redire cogit (Apollo, Oebalus, Melia) 4:49 98 19. No. 9, Terzetto: Tandem post turbida fulmina (Apollo, Melia, Oebalus) 2:45 104 Total Playing Time: 76:38 MOZART / APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS 5 The Orchestra of Classical Opera Violin 1 Cello Matthew Truscott (leader) Joseph Crouch (continuo) Iona Davies Andrew Skidmore Catherine Martin Jonathan Byers Huw Daniel Rebecca Livermore Double bass Elizabeth MacCarthy Cecelia Bruggemeyer (continuo) Antonia Bakewell Violin 2 William Thorp Oboe Sophie Barber Mark Baigent Marianna Szücs Hannah McLaughlin Nia Lewis Daniel Edgar Bassoon Hilary Michael Philip Turbett Viola Horn Katie Heller Roger Montgomery Louise Hogan Nicholas Benz Kate Fawcett Heather Birt Harpsichord Steven Devine (continuo) 6 MOZART / APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS MOZART / APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS 7 Apollo et Hyacinthus – an introduction by Ian Page Apollo et Hyacinthus, which was commissioned by the grammar school attached to Salzburg University and first performed there on 13 May 1767, was Mozart’s first opera. It was written when he was eleven years old. It is of course truly astonishing that anyone could write an opera of such quality at such an age, but in some ways the achievement is unsurprising, given how extraordinary Mozart’s childhood had already been up to that point. By the time Mozart returned to Salzburg in November 1766, following his Grand Tour of Germany, Belgium, France, England, the Netherlands and Switzerland, he had already composed numerous symphonies, sonatas and arias. He had also performed at many of the leading courts and theatres in Europe, and equally importantly had been able to hear performances of music by many of the most celebrated composers of the day. Having spent barely a quarter of the previous five years in Salzburg, Mozart was now to remain there for ten consecutive months, and this period proved to be the most important and prolific to date in the young composer’s burgeoning career. A recitative and aria written to celebrate the Archbishop of Salzburg’s anniversary in December 1766 led to the commission for him to compose the first part of the sacred singspiel Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots, which was performed in the Knights’ Hall of the Archbishop’s Palace on 12 March 1767, and this was soon followed by the remarkable Passion cantata Grabmusik. Such an imposing portfolio must have been increasingly difficult to ignore, and it was presumably a relatively uncontentious step to commission Mozart to write the music for Apollo et Hyacinthus. 8 MOZART / APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS Background Since 1617 the grammar school attached to Salzburg’s Benedictine University had had a tradition of performing an annual Latin play, and in 1661 a theatre equipped with elaborate stage machinery had been erected adjacent to the university’s Great Hall. In addition to the annual event in August, individual classes sometimes presented their own productions – indeed the five-year-old Mozart, though not attached to the school, had taken part in a Latin school play there in 1761 – and in May 1767 the third year students at the Gymnasium performed a five-act Latin tragedy, Clementia Croesi (‘The Clemency of Croesus’). This was written by the Professor of Syntax at the university, a Benedictine monk named Rufinus Widl, and was based on a story from Herodotus. King Croesus of Lydia has engaged the exiled Phrygian prince Adrastus to educate his son Atys. In the original story Adrastus kills Atys in a hunting accident and then, overcome by grief, kills himself; Father Widl, though, adapted the plot to suit his pedagogic purposes, and had Adrastus being generously forgiven by Croesus and welcomed into his court. Over the years it had also become customary for a short musical entertainment or ‘intermedium’ to be interpolated within the main play; this was also in Latin, and provided relief from the high-minded didacticism of the main play while at the same time reinforcing its meaning and message. Thus it was that early in 1767 Mozart was commissioned to write the intermedium which was to accompany Clementia Croesi. MOZART / APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS 9 The text The libretto was again by Father Widl, and the subject was the mythological story of Apollo and Hyacinth. In the original story, as told by Ovid, Pausanias and others, Apollo is in love with Hyacinth. While the two are playing discus together, Hyacinth is so impressed by the skill and strength of Apollo’s first throw that he enthusiastically runs to pick the discus up as it falls to the ground; as it lands, though, the discus ricochets off a rock and strikes Hyacinth a mortal blow to the head. A grief-stricken Apollo refuses to let Hades claim the boy, and instead creates a flower, the hyacinth, from his spilled blood. Other accounts of the myth add the character of Zephyrus, Apollo’s rival for the affections of Hyacinth. In this version, the jealous Zephyrus deliberately blows Apollo’s discus off course and causes it to strike Hyacinth. To reinforce the parallels with the themes of Clementia Croesi, and to make the story more palatable to eighteenth century audiences, Father Widl adapted the plot still further, adding the characters of Melia and Oebalus. Melia becomes the object of Apollo’s now heterosexual love, with Zephyrus providing the treachery and deceit which drives the drama forward, while Oebalus is now responsible for banishing the god from his kingdom. In this way the culmination of the opera becomes more about forgiveness and redemption, themes that were to dominate the great operatic masterpieces of Mozart’s maturity. The work was divided into three parts, which were given suitably classical titles: the Prologue was performed before the play, Chorus I after the second act, and Chorus II before the fifth and final act. The opera does not seem to have been given a name at the time (the first surviving reference to a title is from Mozart’s sister in 1799), and Leopold Mozart described it in his list of his son’s early compositions merely as ‘Music for a Latin Comedy’. Listeners expecting lots of laughs in Apollo et Hyacinthus should remember that such terms are purely relative, and that the work is a ‘comedy’ only in 10 MOZART / APOLLO ET HYACINTHUS that it was designed to offset the tendentious moralizing of Clementia Croesi (which actually begins after Atys has been killed, and takes five acts to debate whether or not Croesus should seek retribution).