MARCH 2006

MOZART

The Magic of Mozart was demonstrated by popular musician and scholar Peter Medhurst with a talk entitled: “Mozart’s Operatic World”.

Mr Medhurst celebrated the first day of spring with a lively lecture including excerpts from Mozart’s operas, sung in a fine bass voice. He accompanied himself on the piano and acted many parts in scenes from some operas.

Mozart visited London, with his father, in 1764 and, absorbing musical styles there, he started composing symphonies at the age of eight. The pieces included his first tenor aria. He composed a total of 21 operas, the last eight being the best and most famous. The operas were sung in German and Italian, and the Italian libretti were in collaboration with Lorenzo Ponti. However, Mozart’s composition and phrasing were so brilliant that stage directions were hardly needed as the music so completely fitted the action of the opera.

He built on the music of his predecessors and although he was influenced by Glück, his style was more classical than baroque. He constructed songs so that the action fitted in naturally with the narrative and introduced trios where each part displayed a different emotion. The music also fitted social strata, being very grand for dukes and for ordinary folk, popular tunes that were whistled in the streets.

Apart from the lighter operas, The Magic Flute contained material that had connections with the Masonic movement, which could be found throughout the piece. Don Giovanni was a gothic opera with supernatural content. Mozart used diminished chords to convey unease and creepiness to great effect. The style of music was later to be used as accompaniment to silent films.

Mr Medhurst concluded his wonderful lecture and performance with a final aria, on request, thus proving the popularity that Mozart has today, 250 years after his birth.