MOZART : IL RE PASTORE

Radio New Zealand Concert Network
Sunday 27th of December 2015 at 6.30 - 8.35 pm

MOZART: Il re pastore, an opera in two acts
Alessandro........................ John Mark Ainsley
Aminta.............................. Sarah Fox
Elisa.................................. Ailish Tynan
Tamiri............................... Anna Devin
Agenore............................ Benjamin Hulett
Orchestra of Classical Opera/Ian Page (Signum SIGCD 433)

INTRODUCTION 
LIBRETTO (Italian/Spanish)

The Italian title Il re Pastore means 'the shepherd king'. In the ancient world, kings were compared to shepherds (King Jesus the Good Shepherd, for example), and King David was a sheep-keeper who became the King of Israel. This time we have a shepherd (Aminta) becoming king, but he really was a man born to be king it will finally be revealed (is that what they call a 'spoiler', or am I it?).
   The Alessandro in the cast is Alexander the Great, so we are in the 300s before the current era; he died in 323 (BCE). Alessandro, the king of Macedonia (and emperor of the world),  has overthrown Stratone, the tyrant of Sidon, in Phoenicia (Lebanon) and he endeavours to find the rightful king.
   The opera is rare (I can not remember having heard it before now) and it is actually called a serenata ('serenade'? a dramatic cantata, but designed to promote serenity, or to be performed in the evening?). It is also said to be a comic opera, in the sense of having a happy ending, with the right couples being allowed to marry.
   The libretto is one of the many that were composed by Pietro Metastasio; they were very 'serious', and none of them matched the style of Lorenzo da Ponte (Don Giovanni).