Il re pastore, Opera by W. A. Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's melodramatic two-act opera, Il re pastore, is performed at the Teatro Nazionale in the heart of Rome. Featuring the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma Orchestra, this production is one of Mozart's earlier operatic works. During his younger years, the great composer worked for several Salzburg Archbishops, receiving commissions to compose several pieces for their private functions. Il re pastore is just such a work, an opera that was first performed at Archbishop's Palace in Salzburg on 23 April 1775.
Count Hieronymus von Colloredo, an aristocrat who had served as Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1772, was the clergyman who asked the 19-year-old Mozart to come up with a new stage work. He commissioned it to celebrate a visit by Archduke Maximilian Francis to the city. Mozart had been impressed by Italian operatic traditions during his time spent in the country and set upon the idea of using an Italian text for his libretto. The burgeoning talent and confidence of Mozart meant he was quite prepared to write music to an opera seria libretto by Pietro Metastasio, an Italian poet who was then regarded with some justification as being among the foremost figures in his field. Metastasio's libretto had been inspired by a Torquato Tasso play entitled Aminta from two centuries before. The play depicts the eternal conflict between personal lives and desires as they are impinged upon by the higher callings and responsibilities of the state. By the time Mozart began writing Il re pastore, Aminta had already been the inspiration for operas by at least a dozen composers.
Il re pastore, known as The Shepherd King in English, is set during ancient times. It focuses on the Kingdom of Sidon which has just been conquered by Alexander the Great who has removed its usurper king. Alexander seeks the true king, Aminta. However, when Aminta is found, he is working as a humble shepherd completely unaware of his birthright. Meanwhile, the deposed former king's daughter, Tamiri, has fled and disguised herself as a shepherdess. What ensues is a tale of love and succession with a proposed marriage between Aminta and Tamiri that would make each of the main characters sad. How will Alexander demand those involved behave and how will they fulfil their destinies as rulers? Il re pastore explores all these questions and more in a score that took Mozart just six weeks to produce.
This Teatro Nazionale staging of Il re pastore features some wonderful early Mozart music including the sublime arias 'Barbaro! oh Dio mi vedi' and 'Se tu di me fai dono', both from Act two.