Mitridate, re di Ponto, K. 87: Overture

Composer: MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus
  • Mitridate, re di Ponto (Mithridates, King of Pontus) is an opera seria to a libretto derived from French poet Jean Racine’s Mithridate.1
    • The story of this opera is a fictional account of historical king Mithridates, who was known for defending his empire against Roman invasion.
    • The plot of the opera involves the rebellion of Mithridates’ two sons, who are both in love with their father’s fiancée Aspasia. (awkward)
  • Mozart wrote this opera when he was 14, for performance in Milan, where he conducted twenty performances of it.2
  • Mozart was commissioned to compose this opera for the 1770-1771 winter carnival season in Milan.3
  • Mitridate, re di Ponto premiered on December 26, 1770. The first performance lasted six hours (the work was padded out with ballets by other composers).4
  • This libretto had already been set to music in 1767 by an Italian composer named Quirino Gasparini. Mozart’s lead tenor at the premiere was not thrilled with an aria Mozart wrote for him, and insisted on singing Gasparini’s version of the aria instead. As a result, Mozart’s version of that aria is lost.5
  • The overture is cast in the form of a three-movement sinfonia.6

Sources

  1. Julian Rushton, “Mitridate, re di Ponto (‘Mithridates, King of Pontus’),” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed December 3, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000903244. 
  2. Cliff Eisen, and Stanley Sadie, “Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed November 19, 2019,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-6002278233.
  3. Ibid.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid.
  6. Rushton, “Mitridate, re di Ponto (‘Mithridates, King of Pontus’),” Grove Music Online.

Cut IDs

16129