Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto Spyres, Fuchs, Devieilhe, Dreisig, Les Musiciens Du Louvre & Marc Minkowski

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1:
• 1 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: Overture 05:05
• 2 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Vieni, signor” (Arbate, Sifare) 00:57
• 3 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Se a me s'unisce Arbate" (Sifare, Aspasia) 00:55
• 4 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Al destin, che la minaccia" (Aspasia) 06:30
• 5 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Qual tumulto nell'alma" (Sifare) 01:10
• 6 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Soffre il mio cor con pace" (Sifare) 07:43
• 7 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Sin a quando, o regina" (Sifare, Farnace, Aspasia, Arbate) 01:01
• 8 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "L'odio nel cor frenate" (Arbate) 03:16
• 9 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Principe, che facemmo!" (Farnace, Sifare, Aspasia) 00:13
• 10 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Nel sen mi palpita" (Aspasia) 02:18
• 11 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Un tale addio, germano" (Farnace, Sifare) 00:39
• 12 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Eccovi in un momento" (Farnace, Marzio) 00:52
• 13 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Venga pur, minacci e frema" (Farnace) 06:30
• 14 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: Marcia 03:55
• 15 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Se di lauri il crine adorno" (Mitridate) 05:07
• 16 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Tu mi rivedi, Arbate" (Mitridate, Ismene, Arbate) 01:00
• 17 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Sulla temuta destra" (Sifare, Mitridate, Farnace, Ismene) 01:41
• 18 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "In faccia all'oggetto" (Ismene) 04:19
• 19 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Teme Ismene a ragion" (Mitridate, Arbate) 01:41
• 20 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Respira alfin, respira" (Mitridate) 01:45
• 21 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 1: "Quel ribelle, e quell'ingrato" (Mitridate) 02:54
• Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2:
• 22 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Questo è l'amor, Farnace" (Ismene, Farnace) 01:01
• 23 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Va', l'error mio palesa" (Farnace) 02:39
• 24 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Perfido, ascolta" (Ismene, Mitridate) 00:49
• 25 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Eccomi a' cenni tuoi" (Aspasia, Mitridate) 02:06
• 26 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Dille, che tema" (Mitridate) 00:15
• 27 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Tu, che fedel" (Mitridate) 04:27
• 28 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Che dirò? Che ascoltai?" (Sifare, Aspasia) 01:02
• 29 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Oh giorno di dolore" (Aspasia, Sifare) 00:52
• 30 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Non più regina" (Sifare) 02:33
• 31 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Lungi da te, mio bene" (Sifare) 09:29
• 32 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Grazie ai numi partì" (Aspasia) 01:37
• 33 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Nel grave tormento" (Aspasia) 04:57
• 34 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Qui, dove la vendetta" (Mitridate, Sifare, Farnace) 01:52
• 35 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Signor, son io" (Marzio, Mitridate, Sifare) 00:40
• 36 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Ah, giacché son tradito" (Farnace) 00:15
• 37 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Son reo; l'error confesso" (Farnace) 02:52
• 38 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "E crederai, signor" (Sifare, Mitridate, Aspasia) 01:48
• 39 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Già di pietà mi spoglio" (Mitridate) 02:16
• 40 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Ah mia regina" (Sifare, Aspasia) 00:33
• 41 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Io sposa di quel mostro" (Aspasia, Sifare) 01:46
• 42 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 2: "Se viver non degg'io" (Sifare, Aspasia) 06:45
• Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3:
• 43 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Pera omai chi m'oltraggia" (Mitridate, Ismene) 00:29
• 44 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "So quanto a te dispiace" (Ismene) 05:30
• 45 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Il tuo furore" (Aspasia, Mitridate) 00:32
• 46 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Mio re, t'affretta" (Arbate, Mitridate) 00:36
• 47 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Vado incontro al fato estremo" (Mitridate) 02:40
• 48 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Lagrime intempestive" (Aspasia) 00:28
• 49 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Ah ben ne fui presaga" (Aspasia) 08:11
• 50 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Che fai, regina?" (Sifare, Aspasia) 00:31
• 51 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Che mi val questa vita" (Sifare) 00:40
• 52 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Se 'l rigor d'ingrata sorte" (Sifare) 02:46
• 53 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Sorte crudel" (Farnace) 00:12
• 54 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Teco i patti" (Marzio, Farnace) 00:58
• 55 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Se di regnar sei vago" (Marzio) 03:45
• 56 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Vadasi... Oh ciel, ma dove" (Farnace) 01:08
• 57 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Già dagli occhi il velo è tolto" (Farnace) 09:27
• 58 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Figlio, amico, non più" (Mitridate) 01:04
• 59 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Numi, qual nuova è questa" (Mitridate) 00:57
• 60 Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87, Act 3: "Non si ceda al Campidoglio" (Sifare, Aspasia, Farnace, Ismene, Arbate) 00:39
• Total Runtime 02:30:38

Info for Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto

Mozart was just 14 years old when he composed Mitridate, re di Ponto for performance in Milan. An opera seria set in ancient times, it boasts a sequence of spectacular arias for its cast of strongly contrasting characters. At the centre of the action is Mitridate himself – the historical Mithridatus, King of Pontus, a ruler of Persian-Greek ancestry who was a formidable opponent of the Roman empire.

Mitridate is embodied on this new recording, conducted by Marc Minkowski with Les Musiciens du Louvre, by Michael Spyres. When the American tenor (or baritenor) sang the role in Paris in 2016, Opera magazine wrote: “With their vertiginous leaps and wide range, Mozart’s arias present formidable technical challenges, not least for the tenor in the title role, who is pushed to extremes. Michael Spyres, a singer of exceptional agility and control, took these in his stride.” A year later, he took the role at London’s Royal Opera House, and this time Opera magazine praised his performance as “never less than thrilling”, noting that his recitatives were “outstanding for their beauty and unforced eloquence”.

This recording has its roots in Marc Minkowski’s project for a Kabuki-inspired staging of the opera which was scheduled for Berlin’s Staatsoper in November 2020. When the pandemic caused its cancellation, Erato stepped in and conductor and orchestra found themselves back home in France, recording in the Philharmonie de Paris. There was a certain poetic justice to this, since the opera draws on Mithridate by the great French playwright Jean Racine. The play, first performed in 1673, was a particular favourite of another formidable monarch, Louis XIV.

The change of location and the complications of life under Covid-19 also gave rise to some alterations in the cast, which became largely French – the exceptions being Spyres and the Gabonese (but Bordeaux-trained) mezzo-soprano Adriana Bignani Lesca; she sings the governor Arbate, a role originally taken by a castrato. There are three star sopranos: Sabine Devieilhe as the Parthian princess Ismene (Avant-scène Opéra, describing her 2016 performance beside Spyres in Paris, wrote that “Her charm, her virtuosity and her use of the text are balm for the ears”); Julie Fuchs as Aspasia, Mitridate’s betrothed, whose interpretation of Servilia in Mozart’s final opera seria, La clemenza di Tito, has been praised by Gramophone for its “exquisite shaping” and “redemptive grace”, and, as Sifare, Elsa Dreisig, a dazzling Fiordiligi in the 2020 Salzburg Così fan tutte released on DVD by Erato. Like Arbate, Sifare, one of Mitridate’s sons, is a role originally conceived for a castrato. The king’s other son is Farnace, sung here by the French countertenor Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian, and the cast is completed by tenor Cyrille Dubois as the Roman legionary Marzio.

Mark Minkowski’s credentials in Mozart are, of course, impeccable. He spent four years (2013-17) as artistic director of Salzburg’s Mozartwoche, and his readings are as exceptional for their intensity and sense of momentum as for their scholarship and exquisite attention to detail.

Michael Spyres, tenor (Mitridate)
Julie Fuchs, soprano (Aspasia)
Sabine Devieilhe, soprano (Ismène)
Elsa Dreisig, soprano (Sifare)
Paul-Antoine Benos-Dijan, tenor (Farnace)
Cyrille Dubois, tenor (Marzio)
Adriana Bignagni Lesca, tenor (Arbate)
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Marc Minkowski, conductor

Marc Minkowski
began conducting at an early age. In 1982, he founded Les Musiciens du Louvre, exploring French Baroque music and Handel, before expanding their repertoire to Mozart, Rossini, Offenbach, Bizet, and Wagner. He regularly conducts in Paris (Opéra National, Théâtre du Châtelet and Opéra Comique), at Covent Garden and La Scala, at the Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence Festivals, in Brussels, Zurich, Venice, Moscow, Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna (Theater and der Wien and Staatsoper). In 2015, he initiated a relationship with the Drottningholm Festival in Sweden centered around the Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy, in collaboration with the Opéra Royal of the Château de Versailles. Marc Minkowski is also in high demand on the concert platform conducting orchestras such as BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, DSO Berlin, Vienna Philharmonic, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra...

The highlights of his 2018/2019 operatic season as a conductor include : Pelléas et Mélisande in Japan, der Freischütz in Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, Manon both in Bordeaux and at the Opera Comique in Paris. Appointed General Manager of the Opéra National de Bordeaux in 2016, he founded the Ré Majeure Festival in 201, was the Artistic Director of the Mozartwoche Salzburg from 2013 to 2017, and becomes the Artistic Advisor of Kanazawa Orchestra (Japan) from September 2018.

Booklet for Mozart: Mitridate, rè di Ponto