Lucio Silla: Early Operas [Box set]

 

 

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Performed for the first time in 1772 in Milano, this is an early opera by Mozart. And yet what a beautiful piece of music. The story itself is as naïve as we can imagine. Crossed lovers with a Roman leader who is tyrannically imposing his rule, will and love decisions are a rather banal situation. It could be a perfect tragedy with people dying for no reason at all except the caprice of the tyrant. But here Mozart plays on a third act that turns the whole tale upside down. The tyrant is suddenly convinced that he has to reform. So he resigns from power after freeing all political prisoners and supporting all lovers in their own choices. This reflects Mozart's historical time. The desire to discover and reach freedom in Europe, or in the world, and at the same time the drab and sad reality that made Europe be governed by tyrants all over. And there was no hope for change in 1772, except of course the dream carried by the Enlightenment and the philosophers. But from Rousseau to freedom or from Voltaire to liberty there was a long winding road to take and follow. But that opera reveals at least Mozart's deeply rooted wish for a change in the world. The second characteristic in this Milanese opera is that some of the male lovers must have been entrusted to castrati and the choice of this production to call for sopranos and not altos is a little surprising if not bewildering since we do have quite a few altos in Europe, and Belgium is rather known for her modernity. We can only imagine the beauty of the duet of Giunia and Cecilio at the end of the first act sung here by two female sopranos instead of a female soprano and a male castrato or alto. That does not minimize the music which is perfect in many ways. Light when necessary, dark in many places, dramatic all the time, the voices are in the forefront with a skimpy accompaniment that let's us enjoy them. And when the orchestra takes over Mozart is already mastering his art with flexibility and rich nuances that create like a forest of musical life around the shiny clearings full of the luminous voices. I must admit Silla himself is quite convincing in his tenor dress that at times sounds slightly light-headed, if I can say so, for a tyrant and gets kind of dark at the end of his sentences and periods. His "inutile il dolore" is quite fascinating and it opens so marvelously on the next scene in some dark necropolis and the lethal lamentation of Cecilio. Mozart is already so powerful when conjuring up death in his music though he manages to move to love as fast as he can, which leads him to somber sadness due to the real situation. Still on the sexual imbroglio, Cinna's aria in the second act "nel fortunato instante" would have been so much better sung by an alto, especially after Giunia's aria. Mozart must have played on such a contrast but this recording pushes it aside. The same note sung by an alto has little in common with it sung by a soprano, except the note itself of course, but that is only a small part of its rendition. Giunia's aria "Parto m'affreto" is a pure beauty that is so modern for his time and even ours, unifying love and fear, desire and anxiety. The chorus that follows is trying to dispel the gloom but not entirely. And Silla will come with the shadow of Giunia's father he had had executed. That brings up some fight on Giunia's side in the presence of other characters. The trio is the embodiment of this impossible ménage à trois leading to the confrontation of Silla and Cecilio in front of Giunia, the stake of the argument. Mozart closes it with a duet inside the trio, joining Giunia and Cecilio twice against Silla whose future rejection is sealed in a way. He will never get Giunia's love. The last act is that of the redemption of everyone into freedom or out of power. Silla's final intervention is dramatically prepared by the evocation of death by all protagonists. And when Silla announces his decision s, his clemency, his retirement from politics, in quasi total silence, he causes astonishment, maybe fear, and the last chorus is like a Te Deum to the wisdom of this had-been tyrant. A real call from Mozart for all tyrants to yield power and let love and freedom triumph.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

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