' (''The Impresario''), K. 486, is a comic '' singspiel'' by

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

, set to a German libretto by

Gottlieb Stephanie Johann Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger (19 February 1741 – 23 January 1800) was an Austrian playwright, director and librettist, most famously to Mozart. Stephanie was born in Breslau, Prussia. He was taken prisoner by the Austrian forces in ...

, an Austrian ''Schauspieldirektor''. Originally, it was written because of "the imperial command" of the Holy Roman Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 un ...

who had invited 80 guests to a private luncheon. It is regarded as "a parody on the vanity of singers", who argue over status and pay. Mozart, who describes it as "comedy with music" wrote it as his entry in a musical competition which was given a private performance hosted on 7 February 1786 by Joseph II at the

Schönbrunn Palace Schönbrunn Palace (german: Schloss Schönbrunn ; Central Bavarian: ''Schloss Scheenbrunn'') was the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers, located in Hietzing, Vienna. The name ''Schönbrunn'' (meaning “beautiful spring”) has its root ...

in Vienna.Opera Glass
on opera.stanford.edu This competition pitted a German ''singspiel'', presented at one end of the room, against a competing Italian opera, the Italian entry being

Antonio Salieri Antonio Salieri (18 August 17507 May 1825) was an Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy ...

opera buffa ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...

, ''

Prima la musica e poi le parole (First the music and then the words) is an opera in one act by Antonio Salieri to a libretto by Giovanni Battista Casti. The work was first performed on 7 February 1786 in Vienna, following a commission by the Emperor Joseph II.Kärntnertor Theater, Vienna, on 11 February.

Composition history

The work was written during a very creative period in Mozart's life, at the same time as his ''

Le nozze di Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...

'', which premiered later the same year, along with three piano concertos and "another dozen major works". In addition to the overture, there are only four vocal numbers in the score, and the musical content (about 30 minutes) is surrounded by much spoken dialogue, typical in its day. One highlight, which

Erik Smith Erik George Sebastian Smith (25 March 19314 May 2004) was a German-born British record producer, pianist and harpsichordist. He produced over 90 opera recordings. His greatest legacy is the 1991 complete recording of the entirety of Wolfgang Am ...

describes as very funny, is where "each lady sings about the nobility of her art while trying to defeat her rival with ever higher notes". Although it has been described as a "silly farce", Mozart appears to have taken the opportunity to write serious arias and thus the "audition" of Madame Herz includes her aria "" ("There tolls the hour of departure"), while Mme Silberklang sings the elegant

rondo The rondo is an instrumental musical form introduced in the Classical period. Etymology The English word ''rondo'' comes from the Italian form of the French ''rondeau'', which means "a little round". Despite the common etymological root, rondo ...

, "" ("Dearest Youth").

Performance history

Highland Echo 1915-1925 (1915) (14598141739)

The opera was first presented in the United Kingdom on 30 May 1857 at the

St James's Theatre The St James's Theatre was in King Street, St James's, London. It opened in 1835 and was demolished in 1957. The theatre was conceived by and built for a popular singer, John Braham; it lost money and after three seasons he retired. A succ ...

in London and given its US premiere at the Stadt Theatre in New York on 9 November 1870. In modern times, the text is usually completely rewritten for contemporary relevance, which was the case for the 2014 production given by the

Santa Fe Opera Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the ''Opera Association of New Mexico'' in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby, oversaw the building of the first opera house on a newl ...

. There it had "English dialogue by the British dramatist

Ranjit Bolt Ranjit Bolt OBE (born 1959) is a British playwright and translator. He was born in Manchester of Anglo-Indian parents and is the nephew of playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt.Programme notes for ''The Grouch'', West Yorkshire Playhouse Feb ...

and additional Mozart

concert aria A concert aria is normally a free-standing aria or opera-like scene (''scena'') composed for singer and orchestra, written specifically for performance in concert rather than as part of an opera. Concert arias have often been composed for particula ...

s folded into the score" with the action taking place in Paris in the 1920s. The cast included

Anthony Michaels-Moore Anthony Michaels-Moore (born 8 April 1957) is an English operatic baritone and the first British winner of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition (Philadelphia, 1985). Michaels-Moore has since performed in many of the world's major ...

Brenda Rae Brenda Rae is an American operatic soprano who has performed leading roles in opera houses internationally. She was a resident artist at the Frankfurt Opera from 2008 through 2017. She is a featured performer on the Naxos Records 2015 recording of ...

, Meredith Arwady, and

Erin Morley Erin Morley (born October 11, 1980) is an American operatic soprano. Early years Morley was born in Salt Lake City, Utah to David Palmer, a former singer in the Tabernacle Choir, and Elizabeth Palmer, a current concertmaster of the Salt Lake Sy ...

. The 1966 recording by the

English Chamber Orchestra The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. The orchestra regularly tours in the UK and internationall ...

(conducted by André Previn), was performed with an English libretto penned by Previn's then wife

Dory Previn Dorothy "Dory" Veronica Previn ( Langan; October 22, 1925 – February 14, 2012) was an American lyricist, singer-songwriter and poet. During the late 1950s and 1960s, Previn was a lyricist on songs intended for motion pictures and, with her t ...

, who transplanted the amusing tale to the 20th century.Mozart: ''The Impresario''
Presto Classical Bronx Opera performed it in 1972, 2008, and in 2021, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, as a video version in

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Technology Computing * Zoom (software), videoconferencing application * Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display * Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...

format."Sunday Night at the Opera with Bronx Opera Company: ''The Impresario''"

BronxNet BronxNet is a public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable television network in The Bronx, New York, airing on multiple Cablevision and Verizon FiOS channels. BronxNet is located on the campus of Lehman College, and at a new studio, " ...

, 8 September 2021

Roles

Synopsis

:Place: Vienna :Time: 1786 Frank, the impresario (along with the buffo singer, Buff, who assists him) audition two actresses to be part of his new theatrical company. While both are hired, they then argue over who will get the prime role and who will be paid the most. To illustrate their strengths, each sings a striking aria to back her claim (Herz: "", Silberklang: ""). An agreement is reached when the tenor, Vogelsang, intervenes, in what

Julian Rushton Julian Gordon Rushton (born 22 May 1941) is an English musicologist, born in Cambridge. He has contributed the entry on Mozart in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' and several other articles in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians' ...

describes as a hilarious trio, "" (I am the

prima donna In opera or commedia dell'arte, a prima donna (; Italian for "first lady"; plural: ''prime donne'') is the leading female singer in the company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. ''Prime donne'' often had grand off-stage per ...

) compromise is agreed to with each receiving "large salaries and star billing". The work ended with the quartet "" (Every artist strives for glory).

Recordings

References

Notes Sources * *

External links

*
Libretto

critical edition Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...

diplomatic edition Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents: especially, historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, p ...

s, source evaluation (German only), links to online DME recordings; Digital Mozart Edition
Synopsis
from Stanford University *
Extensive list of recordings (1938–2006) and some audio

Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg (German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the “Mozarteum” moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Mo ...

's digital ''

Neue Mozart-Ausgabe The ''Neue Mozart-Ausgabe'' (''NMA''; English: ''New Mozart Edition'') is the second complete works edition of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A longer and more formal title for the edition is ''Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Neue A ...

'' *, Judith Howarth; Colin Davis conducting (1991) *, Yvonne Kenny; Colin Davis conducting (1991) *, Kenny, Howarth, Barry Banks; Colin Davis conducting (1991) *, Kenny, Howarth, Banks, Matthew Best; Colin Davis conducting (1991) {{DEFAULTSORT:Schauspieldirektor, Der Operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart German-language operas Singspiele 1786 operas Operas One-act operas