In 1837 “Des Heilands letzte Stunden” enjoyed a successful British premiere. Numerous performances followed until the end of the century and the oratorio becomes a staple of musical life on the British Isles.
Johann Adolf Hasse’s Cleofide from 1731 was his first opera for the Dresden court. It tells of Cleofide’s loyalty and the unwavering benevolence of the conqueror Alessandro. Hasse wrote vividly colorful music for the best orchestra in Europe and tailored the leading role for his wife, the famous prima donna Faustina Bordoni. Cleofide marked the beginning of Hasse’s time as court conductor to the Elector of Saxony and the King of Poland, during which period Dresden was to emerge as one of the leading musical cities of the 18th century.
The serenata Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra is a small-scale opera seria. Composed in Naples in 1725 for a private patron and premiered in his villa with the famous vocal virtuosi Vittoria Tesi and Farinelli, it was the first operatic composition of the young Hasse to attract considerable attention and marked the beginning of his career as one of the most celebrated opera composers of the 18th century.
For his first Singspiel in 1768 the twelve-year-old Mozart chose a subject that was both popular and provocative. Bastien und Bastienne is based on Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s one-act pastoral Le devin du village, which he used as a vehicle for his philosophical ideas when he composed it in 1752, at the height of the Querelle des Bouffons controversy about French and Italian operatic styles. Mozart’s nuanced musical portrayal of the three protagonists already hints at the skills he would go on to develop as a psychologically aware opera composer.
In 1786, Mozart took part in an opera contest ordered by the Emperor, competing against court kapellmeister Antonio Salieri: Italian opera buffa versus German Singspiel. Within just fourteen days, Mozart composed “Der Schauspieldirektor”, a satire on the eccentricities and vanities of the theatrical world.
Find out how Georg Philipp Telemann responded to the Lisbon earthquave of 1756 with his solemn and magnificent Donner-Ode.
