Within the Great Hall of the Salzburg Mozarteum resounds an opera with childlike, almost farcical tunes and a divine sense of musicality. At the 2006 Salzburg Festival, a myriad of allegorical figures come to life in John Dew's colourful costumes and comic staging, calling to mind images of a children's puppet show—which is fitting at the composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was barely eleven years old when he composed this very first opera.
From the moment of its unveiling in March 1767, Die Schuldigkeit received lavish praise in the university’s newspaper chronicle for the quality of its writing. Undoubtedly aided by his father, Mozart composed only the first part, which he described as a "spiritual Singspiel"; Michael Haydn and Anton Cajetan Adlgasser composed the next two parts, now lost to us. Mozart’s work is closer to an oratorio than an opera, sharing many of its features with Singspiel, a half-sung, half-spoken form that became prominent in German opera in the 19th century.
In the same city where Mozart's talent was born, centuries later the allegorical Christian figures of "Divine Justice", "Divine Mercy", and the "Spirit of Christianity" are once again taking turns waking up sleeping Christians to remove them from the influence of the "Spirit of the World". This quirky, comical creation already shows the remarkable assurance with which Mozart would go on to compose so many of the opera genre's all-time favorites.
