Organization

Singer

Tenor

Richard Croft

Mitridate

Soprano

Netta Or

Aspasia

Miah Persson

Sifare

Countertenor

Bejun Mehta

Farnace

Ingela Bohlin

Ismene

Pascal Bertin

Arbate

Conductor

Marc Minkowski

Stage director

Günter Krämer

Costume designer

Falk Bauer

Set designer

Jürgen Bäckmann

Lighting designer

Manfred Voss

Dramaturge

Jens Neundorf von Enzberg

Colin Lee

Marzio

Choreographer

Otto Pichler

Salzburger Festspiele

Les Musiciens du Louvre

Orchestra

Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble

Italian

Mitridate, re di Ponto, K. 87

Salzburg

Austria

Residenzhof

Milan 1770: 14-year-old Mozart is commissioned to write an opera seria for the Teatro Regio Ducale. One decides to set a drama by Jean Racine to music: the story of Mithridates, king of Pontus, whose kingdom lay on the southern Black Sea coast around 100 BC.
The historical drama "Mitridate, re di Ponto" brings a generational conflict about love, death and reasons of state to the stage: on a campaign against the Romans, Mitridate has his young fiancée, the Greek princess Aspasia, in the care of his two sons, Sifare and Farnace, left behind. To put everyone to the test, Mitridate spreads the rumor of his death. It comes as it must: Sifare and Farnace compete for Aspasia's favor; Farnace even wants to dump his fiancee Ismene!
But Mitridate returns. He wants to punish his sons and lets Aspasia know that he wants to marry her on the same day. Aspasia cannot decide, for she is fond of Sifare; on the other hand, she feels an obligation to Mitridate.
In addition to the personal conflict, there is also a political one: Sifare wants to fight the Romans, but Farnace tends to make peace with the opponents.
Mitridate feels betrayed by both: by Farnace because of his alleged collaboration with the Romans, by Sifare because of his love for Aspasia. Without further ado he has both of them arrested; they shall be punished with death.
Aspasia and Ismene try to appease the king. Mitridate demands that Aspasia return to him, but she refuses. Mitridate gives her a bottle of poison and goes to battle against the Romans. Sifare joins his father in battle while Farnace is freed by Roman mercenaries.
Mitridate kills herself to avoid falling into the hands of the Romans. Dying, he gives Aspasia to his son Sifare in marriage and appoints him as his successor. When Mitridate learns that even his son Farnace came to his senses late and fought the Romans, he also forgives him.
Difficult times dawned for the Roman tyrants, because now everyone is united in resistance in Pontos.

"The original sound specialist Minkowski, his sensational Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble and the ensemble of singers handpicked by him made it audible in the Residenzhof how much Mozart shook the fences of conventions, how much his characters break out of their rotten templates at important moments The baroque emotional booming and standing on the ramp should soon be a thing of the past, smaller gestures of sensitivity want to be formulated and emphasized beyond the framework of the known. Minkowski manages this tightrope walk, on the horizon of which the later operas are already appearing, with somnambulistic certainty, he can do the vital, wide awake Let the orchestra spread fear and terror one moment, only to whisper filigree details the next. A dream foundation on which singers can build very

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