Classical: CCCXCVIII. MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus: La Finta Semplice, K. 51

CCCXCVIII. MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791)

La Finta Semplice, K. 51 (1768)
Malin Hartelius, Rosina
Josef Wagner, Don Cassandro
Matthias Klink, Don Polidoro
Marina Comparato, Giacinta
Silvia Moi, Ninetta
Jeremy Ovenden, Fracasso
Miljenko Turk, Simone
Marianne Hamre, Auctoritas
Anna Tenta, Dark Rosina
Camerata Salzburg
Michael Hofstetter, cond.
(2:09:13)

The 12-year-old Mozart and father were in Vienna in 1768, where Leopold wanted to find his kid a permanent gig.
The Emperor (Joseph II) -- who needed no further convincing of the kid's talent -- suggested he write an opera for performance in Vienna.
This would be Mozart's first full-length opera; he had previously written Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots, Part 1 (1766-67), a sacred singspiel (with help from his teachers); Apollo et Hyacinthus (1767), a musical setting of Latin text; and Bastien und Bastienne (1768), a one-act singspiel.
What libretto? And seria or buffa?

Leopold: "There are no singers here for serious opera. Even Gluck's tragic opera Alceste (1767) was performed entirey by opera buffa singers. He too is now writing an opera buffa."

For the libretto, they chose Marco Coltellini, who adapted an older libretto by Carlo Goldoni.
Having completed Act One, Mozart sent it off to the singers, who (according to Leopold) expressed their total satisfaction. Coltellini started making changes -- at the request of Mozart and the singers -- but took so long that the premiere date of Easter 1768 was missed. Mozart, untroubled, continued to work on the opera and soon had completed his first major opera, lasting 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Suddenly, rumors began flying that it was impossible for a 12-year-old boy to have written this -- it must have been Leopold! Gluck was in town with Alceste, and Leopold suggested jealousy and sabotage.
Leopold offered to prove Wolfgang had composed it all himself, by offering to "throw open a random volume from Metastasio's works and invite Wolfgang to provide a musical setting with orchestral accompaniment, of whichever aria he hit upon" -- on the spot!
The impresario -- one Giuseppe Affligio -- had bought into the gossip, and worried that an opera production written by a 12-year-old prodigy would quickly fade under the suspicions of fradulent authorship.
Now the singers started worrying about their reputations, and began to bow out.
It got ugly. The reputation of Salzburg -- and its ruler, the Prince-Archbishop -- was at stake.
At this point, Affligio threatened to openly sabotage the production; Leopold withdrew the entire thing.
Affligio was later sent to the galleys for forgery.

The Emperor's mother -- Maria Theresa -- turns out to be the real villain here. She had seen the hyperactive little boy at Court before (see Amadeus!) and was offended by the lack of dignity when the Mozarts came to visit.
This affair with the new opera convinced her the Mozarts were scoundrels, and probably contributed to Wolfgang's inability to land a permanent gig at Court.
A few years later, when her 17-year-old son, Ferdinand -- the Imperial Governor of Milan -- took a liking to Mozart's music and expressed a desire to employ him in his court, his mother fired off this famous letter:

"You ask me to take the young Salzburger into your service. I do not know why, not believing, that you have need of a composer or of useless people. If however it would give you pleasure, I have no wish to hinder you. What I say is intended only to prevent your burdening yourself with useless people and giving titles to people of that sort. If they are in your service it degrades that service when these people go about the world like beggars. Besides, he has a large family."

In other words, if you do this, I'm cutting off your allowance.

Mozart was forever after unable to gain the kind of recognition that would have resulted in a nomination by a court to a permanent position as opera composer. His life, and the world's legacy of Mozart operas, would have been different, if the fates had smiled on him, if fools hadn't jealously conspired against him, and the Habsburgs had been more understanding and supportive.

Synopsis

This seems to be the only live performance, taken from the 2006 Salzburg Festival, where all 22 operas were recorded for a 33-disc DVD set, which sadly seems to be out of print now.

Sinfonia (3 parts)