Mozart in London

a major survey of Mozart’s childhood visit

20 - 22 February, 2015 Milton Court, BarbicanLondon EC2Y 9BH

Mozart in London

Classical Opera’s ground-breaking MOZART 250 launches with this first ever major retrospective of Mozart’s childhood visit to London. Mozart spent fifteen months in the English capital between April 1764 and July 1765, during which time he composed his first symphonies and arias and heard a vast array of music by other composers. Less than a century after it had been decimated by The Great Fire, London had emerged as the largest and most affluent city in the world, populated by the likes of Dr Johnson and Horace Walpole, David Garrick and William Pitt the Elder. Musically, it hosted some of the most celebrated figures of the time, including the German composers J.C.Bach and Abel and the Italian castrati Tenducci and Manzuoli, and the young Mozart was welcomed with open arms, hailed as a ‘Prodigy of Nature’.

Classical Opera’s immersive weekend of concerts, talks and related events offers fascinating insights into Mozart’s visit. It features concerts and readings, talks and live foyer music, presenting a dynamic portrait of the city and a vibrant cross-section of the music he wrote and heard there. After the opening night’s multi-faceted overview of London’s musical scene in the first half of the 1760s, the Saturday is devoted to the city’s operatic activity during Mozart’s stay – including performances of numerous arias and ensembles which have not been heard since the 18th century – while the Sunday focuses on London’s rapidly developing concert life.

‘Mozart in London’, which in April will also incorporate the first staging in modern times of J.C.Bach’s Adriano in Siria, is the opening chapter of MOZART 250, Classical Opera’s ambitious long-term plan to follow the chronological trajectory of Mozart’s life and works exactly 250 years after the event. Each season the company will devote part of its season to exploring the music being written and premiered in the corresponding year 250 years previously, and the series will in principle run until 2041, the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s death.

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” Samuel Johnson, 1777

“ In short, what [Wolfgang] knew when we left Salzburg is a mere shadow compared to what he knows now. It exceeds all that one can imagine.” Letter from Leopold Mozart – London, 28 May, 1764

Mozart in London

www.classicalopera.co.uk

6.30 pm WELCOME: An introduction to Mozart’s London (30 minutes)

Cliff Eisen (speaker)

7.30 pmMOZART’S LONDONAn overview of the musical scene in London during the 1760s, interspersed with colourful readings from contemporaneous descriptions of the city. The programme includes Mozart’s first symphony (written when he was eight years old), arias from Thomas Arne’s Judith and Artaxerxes, and a harpsichord concerto whose finale is a set of variations on ‘God Save the King’.

Mozart Symphony No.1 in E flat major, K.16Thomas Arne Four Arias from JudithJ.C. Bach Harpsichord Concerto in D major, Op.1, No.6 various A selection of songs from the London Pleasure GardensMozart Symphony No.4 in D major, K.19Thomas Arne Four Arias from Artaxerxes

Ana Maria Labin (soprano)Helen Sherman (mezzo-soprano)Robert Murray (tenor)Steven Devine (harpsichord)

The Orchestra of Classical Opera

Ian Page (conductor)

Friday 20 February

Robert Murray

Helen Sherman

Ana Maria Labin

Steven Devine

Please see back cover for booking information www.classicalopera.co.uk

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, by Thomas Rowlandson © De Agostini/The British Library Board

1.30 pm DISCUSSION: Mozart and London (1 hour)

Andrew McGregor chairs a discussion with Cliff Eisen, Ian Page, and David Vickers

3.00 pmCAPRICIOUS LOVERS: The English Opera In Mozart’s LondonA concert of surviving highlights from the English operas that were performed at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane during Mozart’s time in London. All of the operas presented in these theatres were written in the English language, and many of the items on the programme are receiving their first performance in modern times. The repertoire comprises overtures, arias, duets and trios from:

Thomas Arne The Guardian Outwittedvarious The Maid of the MillGeorge Rush The Capricious LoversMichael Arne/Battishill AlmenaWilliam Bates PharnacesThomas Arne Artaxerxes

Rebecca Bottone (soprano)Sarah-Jane Brandon (soprano)Robert Murray (tenor)



Saturday 21 February

Sarah-Jane Brandon

Rebecca Bottone

Cliff Eisen

Ian Page

Please see back cover for booking information

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Edward Dayes

6.15 pmTALK: A Night at the Opera in Mozart’s London (45 minutes)

Daniel Snowman (speaker)

7.30 pmAN EXOTIC AND IRRATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT: The Italian Opera In Mozart’s London A concert of excerpts from the resident Italian Opera Company’s 1764-65 season at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket. This company comprised several of the most celebrated singers of the day, headed by the soprano Teresa Scotti and the castrati Ferdinando Tenducci and Giovanni Manzuoli, and the programme explores the roles that these three singers created during Mozart’s sojourn in London. Three of the five operas from which music survives were pasticcio operas – operas which used music by a number of different composers – while the arias from Vento’s Demofoonte provide intriguing points of comparison with concert aria settings of the same texts which Mozart was to compose in Italy a few years later.

Programme includes arias and duets from:various Eziovarious BereniceJ. C. Bach Adriano in SiriaMatteo Vento Demofoontevarious Solimano

Anna Devin (soprano)Martene Grimson (soprano)Samantha Price (mezzo-soprano)



Martene Grimson

Anna Devin

Daniel Snowman

Samantha Price

King’s Theatre, Haymarket (anon.)

www.classicalopera.co.uk

11.30 amTHE GENESIS OF GENIUS: Mozart’s ‘Chelsea Notebook’ The distinguished Mozart scholar, fortepianist and harpsichordist John Irving explores the set of forty-three compositional sketches that Mozart wrote during his stay in Chelsea in 1764.

1.45 pm TALK: Georgian London (45 minutes)

Lucy Inglis (speaker)

3.00 pmBACH, ABEL AND MOZART: London Concert Life in 1765In the weekend’s final concert, music by the nine-year-old Mozart is presented alongside works by the two German composers who provided a significant influence on his nascent compositional voice, and who in 1765 established the famous Bach-Abel concert series in London.

J.C.Bach Symphony in G major, Op.3, No.6Mozart “Va, dal furor portata”, K.21J.C.Bach “Cara la dolce fiamma” from Adriano in SiriaAbel Symphony in E flat, Op.7, No.6J.C.Bach “Misera, che ascoltai... Più madre non sono” from Orione J.C.Bach “Non so d’onde viene” from Alessandro nell’ IndieMozart Symphony in F major, K.19a

Eleanor Dennis (soprano)Ben Johnson (tenor)



Sunday 22 February

Ben Johnson

Eleanor Dennis

John Irving

Lucy Inglis

Please see back cover for booking information www.classicalopera.co.uk

Golden Square, Soho, 1750 (anon.)

BRITISH LIBRARY LECTURE SERIES

In a fascinating series of illustrated talks, leading Mozart scholar Cliff Eisen presents three different facets of Mozart’s stay in London in dialogue with other experts.

MADE IN CHELSEA: The Music of Mozart’s London 6 February, 6.30 pm, Tickets £10 Cliff Eisen and Ian Page, with harpsichordist Steven Devine

‘ALL THAT LIFE CAN AFFORD’: London in 1765 13 February, 6.30 pm, Tickets £10 Cliff Eisen and Lucy Inglis

DIVINE WARBLING: The London Pleasure Gardens 2 March, 6.30 pm, Tickets £10Cliff Eisen and Steven Devine, with soprano Kate Semmens

www.classicalopera.co.uk/british-library www.bl.uk/events

MOZART AT THE MUSEUM

Classical Opera is collaborating with the Museum of London to offer learning opportunities alongside ‘Mozart in London’.

Schools’ Opera Performance 13 February, 4.00 pm, Weston Theatre, Museum of LondonChildren from two London primary schools present a new opera inspired by Mozart’s time in London, devised in collaboration with Classical Opera musicians and the Museum of London’s digital team.

Exploring Mozart’s London 13 & 21 February, 11.00am & 12.00 pm, Museum of LondonSpecially tailored tours of the Museum of London’s ‘Expanding City’ collection. The tours on 13 February will feature live musical performances.

These events are free of charge. For further information please visit:

www.classicalopera.co.uk/mozart-at-the-museum www.museumoflondon.org.ukk

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RELATED EVENTS

J.C.BACH: ADRIANO IN SIRIA

Classical Opera presents the first staging in modern times of J.C.Bach’s exquisite opera, premiered in London in January 1765. Thomas Guthrie directs and Ian Page conducts a thrilling young cast, headed by Ellie Laugharne, Stuart Jackson and Rowan Hellier.

14, 16, 18 April, 7.30 pm, Tickets £18 - £55 Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music

www.classicalopera.co.uk/j-c-bach-adriano-siria www.rcm.ac.uk/events

Britannia House, 11 Glenthorne Road, London, W6 0LH

tel +44 (0) 208 846 9744 [email protected]

Classical Opera registered in England, No.3361716, Registered Charity, No.1063387

Box office:www.barbican.org.ukTel: 020 7638 8891Barbican, London EC2Y 8DS

In person: Advance Box Office (Ground floor) Mon - Sat: 10am–9pm

Telephone: 020 7638 8891. Mon–Sat: 10am–8pm Sun, Bank Holidays: 11am–8pm There is a £4.00

administration fee for all telephone bookings.Online: barbican.org.uk

There is a £3.00 administration fee for online bookings

Ticket Prices

MOZART’S LONDON £12, £22, £30 CAPRICIOUS LOVERS: The English Opera in Mozart’s London £12, £22, £30 AN EXOTIC AND IRRATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT: The Italian Opera in Mozart’s London £12, £22, £30 THE GENESIS OF GENIUS: Mozart’s ‘Chelsea Notebook’ £8, £10, £12 BACH, ABEL AND MOZART: London Concert life in 1765 £12, £22, £30

Talks free with any concert ticket

SPECIAL OFFER: 20% off when booking all concerts 10% off when booking two or more concerts

Light refreshments will be available from the Front of House bars at Milton Court throughout the weekend. Milton Court, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 9BH. Nearest tubes: Moorgate (5 mins.), Barbican (8 mins.).

Booking Information

Cover Image: Engraving of the Tower of London (anon.)

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Mozart in London

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Transcript of Mozart in London