Sideways looks at Mozart's operas

Abstract

‘Composers on the stage’ is a new series from Cambridge University Press intended to ‘introduce readers to the operatic works of major composers … and investigate the worlds in which the operas were created and received’. John A. Rice begins with the customary apology for yet another book on Mozart operas, but the apology is superfluous, for no predecessor is structured like this. Responding to his publisher's statement of intent, Rice jettisons the usual chronological approach, with plot summaries and a smattering of music analysis. This does not mean that plots, music and historical elements are lacking; far from it. But they are rearranged in a way that is novel and refreshing. The book is divided into topics such as the genres of Mozart's day; financing and commissioning operas; Mozart and librettists; Mozart and singers; and a thorough look at the theatres where his operas were mounted. Thus the operas are viewed from a series of different angles within the society and operatic culture of his day. Rice carefully explains his approach in the Preface, marking politely but firmly certain points of difference between his and earlier approaches: for instance, the early operas and their context, so often perfunctorily treated, are no less ‘interesting and revealing’ than works of Mozart's maturity (p.xii); and that we should not exaggerate the division between serious and comic operas in Mozart's time (p.xiii). This last point is supported by a sarcastic demolition of Metastasio's Semiramide libretto, ingeniously compared to La finta giardiniera; it is not clear, however, that the admittedly outré plot of Semiramide was considered funny in the 18th century, or that settings of it would have been attended to in such a way as to relish its absurdities.