APOLLO
Mozart Apollo et Hyacinthus
From
"In preparing to sing the role of Apollo (for the first time), I am struck by so many unique features of the opera and its historical context.
First: the opera's libretto is in Latin.
This is both unusual and very exciting to me personally, owing to my affection for the language instilled by an amazing h
igh school Latin teacher (Yes, Mrs. Rajott
e,
"It's all Latin!" She said that about everything, and this is just further proof that she was right.)
Second, and much more remarkable, is that Mozart wrote this, his first opera, when he was 11 years old and it's incredible music for any composer, let alone a tween, to have written!
The libretto was loosely based on Ovid's Metamorphoses story of Apollo
and Hyacinthus, with a major difference regarding which characters were involved in the love triangle. Also noteworthy: at the 1767 premiere in Salzburg, all the cha
racters in the opera (including Hyacinthus' sister, Melia) were played by university-student male singers, but in our production all the characters (including the male ones) are
sung by women, except the character of King Oebalus, sun
g by Bill Hite.
Features we have come to expect in Mozart's later operas are on full display here: beautiful duet and trio writing, lyricism and "typical" classical use of sequence. Some of the forms are rather abbreviated, perhaps owing to the fact that this opera seems to have been conceived as an intermezzo within a larger dramatic performance at the University, where Mozart's father was teaching.
Personally speaking, I had never sung the role of a god before (mostly witches, court
e
sans, minor goddesses, muses, consorts and mothers of heroes). Now this season, I get
to try my hand at two Greek god characters (Mercurius and Apollo). Apollo is interesting in th
at he is patron of so many seemingly disparate things: music, shepherding, medicine, healing, PLAGUE
(!), archery and government. He is also a pretty amorous guy, which is not unusual in the Grecian panoply of deities. This gets Apollo into trouble, and also (fortuitously) results in some cool creation myths. Let's just say that Hyacinthus was quite the catch, and had a very chari
smatic impact on many mortals and gods. I'm looking forward to exploring this story with my wonderful
colleagues, through Mozart's music."
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