MOZART : LUCIO SILLA

Radio New Zealand Concert network
Sunday 15th of November 2009 at 3 - 6.05 pm

COMPOSER
BACKGROUND
UNDERGROUND
SYNOPSIS
LIBRETTO (English translation)
ARIA TEXTS (Italian)
SCORE

MOZART: Lucio Silla, an opera in three acts
Lucio Silla..................... Lothar Odinius
Giunia........................... Simone Nold
Cecilio.......................... Kristina Hammarström
Cinna............................ Henriette Bonde-Hansen
Celia............................. Susanne Elmark
Aufidio.......................... Jakob Naeslund Madsen
Vocal Group Ars Nova, Danish Radio Sinfonietta
Adám Fischer (Dacapo 8.226069/71)

I thought I owned just about all the Mozart operas (especially his earliest, and this one, his fifth, belongs to his 17th year); but I cannot find Lucio Silla anywhere in my audio or video collections. The Roman ruler of the Italian title is the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BCE), but the story is fiction. The libretto was written by Giovanni di Gamerra (with some changes made by Pietro Metastasio). Incidentally, Handel composed an opera titled Silla.

Silla loves Giunia, so he sends her fiancé Senator Cecilio into exile and tells her he is dead; but his wooing is not welcomed; Cecilio sneaks back, and manages to make contact with Giunia; but he is discovered and is put in prison. In the end Silla grants everybody who is against him a pardon, and he abdicates, to public acclaim (the chorus needs something to sing to earn their keep).

My thanks to the anonymous reader of Operawonk who expressed appreciation, at the end of my long article on Mozart's Idomeneo. I am sorry I cannot produce a comparable essay on this one, but a mass of resources (including the complete musical score!) is available by clicking on the headings above.