Apollo et Hyacinthus

After notable success in other areas of Europe, Mozart was commissioned to compose a piece for the Benedictine University in his hometown of Salzburg where it was first performed on 13 May 1767. Mozart's father, Leopold, was a notable name at the university, as many of his pupils were enrolled in the university high school, where theatre played a large role in the curriculum. Mozart's first encounter with the university was at the age of five on September 1 and 3, 1761, when he appeared as an extra in Jakob Anton Wimmer and Johann Ernst Eberlin's Latin Drama Sigismundes Hungariae Rex. Though Mozart was often involved at the university, he was never enrolled as a student. Apollo et Hyacinthus was part of a much larger work, which has caused debate as to whether this work can be considered Mozart's first 'operatic work'. Many historians consider it to be operatic because it is a secular drama composed of five arias, two duets, a chorus and a trio, connected with recitative. However, it was part of the annual end-of-term 'final comoedia' and did not even receive a distinguishing name until Mozart's sister Nannerl entered it into Leopold's catalogue of his son's early works with the name Apollo und Hyacinth after the composer's death. The custom at the university was to perform short musical dramas or 'intermedia' interspersed between acts of the larger play. This particular performance was of the five-act tragedy Clementia Croesi, written by the university's philosophy professor…

Estratto dalla sezione Synopsis dell’articolo Wikipedia — testo rilasciato con licenza CC BY-SA 4.0. Leggi la trama completa →