To celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday, the Salzburg Festival prepared a 100% Mozart lineup for new fans and seasoned experts to relish. For three weeks, audiences had the chance to discover and rediscover works from Mozart’s repertoire, spanning from his childhood to celebrity status. The Irrfahrten (Odysseys) trilogy — directed, choreographed, and co-written by the multi-talented Joachim Schlömer — highlights the lesser-known works in Mozart's repertoire: from his very first true opera buffa in three acts, La Finta Semplice (Irrfahrten I), to the unfinished Lo sposo deluso and L'oca del Cairo (Irrfahrten III: Rex tremendus), via the musical setting of the composer's epistolary correspondence (Irrfahrten II: Abendempfindung). These operas stand alongside a number of instrumental pieces, Lieder, sacred works, and other musical "odysseys". The full trilogy is available on medici.tv!
Commissioned in Vienna by Joseph II of Austria in 1768, and performed for the first time in Salzburg a year later, La Finta Semplice was Mozart's first real opera, written when he was just twelve years old. In this libretto in three acts by Marto Cortellini (adapted from Carlo Goldoni), seven protagonists are at the mercy of love’s fickle nature and end up torn apart by the jealousies and scheming of others. The plot opens with the young Hungarian officer Fracasso (Jeremy Ovenden) and his aide-de-camp Simone (Miljenko Turk), both staying with a family of squires made up of the misogynistic and miserly Don Cassandro (Josef Wagner), his brother the simpleton and great seducer Don Polidaro (Matthias Klink), and their sister Giacinta (Marina Comparato), with whom Fracasso has fallen head over heels in love. Ninetta (Silvia Moi), who is Giacinta's servant and is herself in love with Simone, asks Fracasso's sister Rosina (Malin Hartelius) to seduce Don Cassandro in order to facilitate their marriage. But Don Polidaro soon falls in love with the phony, plaguing the castle into a rivalry between brothers that may devolve into a point of no return…
For this first part, Schlömer presents a modern, theatrical production with strong symbolism and refreshing comedy. The young Mozart’s sparkling arias are accompanied by a magnificent cast of expert singers and passionate actors who set the (high) standard for the rest of the trilogy.
