The world premiere production of a new completion of Mozart's unfinished opera Zaide will be staged at the Theatre Royal Bath on Thursday, July 1 and Saturday, July 3. Presented by Ian Page and the Classical Opera Company, the opera comes to Bath direct from Sadler's Wells and immediately prior to the Buxton cheap abercrombie Festival.
Zaide will be the last production staged in the Theatre Royal's main house before a planned two-month closure while major refurbishment work is carried out.
Mozart's remarkable opera is seldom performed, as it remained unfinished. This new completion enables a rare theatrical staging.
Director Melly Still, nominated for ten awards for her production of Coram Boy for the National Theatre, explores the themes of oppression in a contemporary context, unspecific to time or place.
Ian Page has masterminded a final act using Mozart's own music and commissioning poet Michael Symmons Roberts and playwright Ben Power to create the libretto. With a new ending, the tale of tyranny and imprisonment is resolved in forgiveness. The Mozartian theme of reconciliation resounds strongly with South African soprano Pumeza Matshikiza in the lead role and librettist Michael Symmons Roberts, who has explored the theme in previous works.
Mozart started Zaide in 1779 when he was 23 and desperate to escape the constraints of life in Salzburg, which he described as a prison.
Tiffany Jewellery saleHe was frustrated by the lack of regular opportunities to write opera, and commenced Zaide regardless of a commission. Having written the first two acts, including the celebrated aria Ruhe Sanft, Mozart set it aside when he received a new commission for Idomeneo. However, the music for Zaide reveals a new maturity, and Mozart himself held it in high regard. This month, Ruhe Sanft from Zaide was selected as one of the top 10 arias of all time in a BBC Radio 3 poll for Best Aria voted for by the public.
Seventy minutes of music survive but both the score and the story are incomplete. Although the music was linked by spoken dialogue rather than sung recitatives, none of this text survives. To complete the opera, Ian Page chose to use music written by Mozart during the same period as Zaide to give the completion musical consistency. For the translation of the sung text, Page turned to award-winning poet Michael Symmons Roberts and for the connecting spoken text the acclaimed young playwright and dramaturg Ben Power with Melly Still.
Tickets cost from Pounds 23.50 to Pounds 37 on 01225 448844 or visit .
WIN TICKETS We have two tickets to Mozart's Zaide on Thursday, July 1 at 7.30pm to give away. Just answer the following question, put your answer on a postcard and send it with your name and telephone number to Mozart Competition, The Guide, The Bath Chronicle, Westpoint, James Street West, Bath BA1 2DA. The first correct answer out of the hat on Monday morning will get the tickets. The question is: who directs Zaide?
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