The Impresario
Mozart
Information
Der Schauspieldirektor (K486, 1786), comedy with music in one act
Music by W A Mozart
Libretto by Gottlieb Stephanie the Younger, English version by Jeremy Gray
16 July 1994: The Deanery garden, Bampton
Cast
| Mr Frank, an impresario | Trevor Milne-Day |
| Mr Angel, his assistant | John Virgoe |
| Madame Goldentrill, a fading opera singer | Anne-Marie Keaney |
| Ms Warblewell, a rising opera singer | Amanda Pitt |
| Bluff | Justin Harmer |
| Conductor | Guy Hopkins |
| Producer and designer | Jeremy Gray |
Synopsis
Frank and Angel decide, amongst some confusion, to present Mozart's L’Oca del Cairo in their forthcoming production and are then faced with the problem of casting an unfamiliar opera. In anticipation of there being a prominent soprano lead they have both, without consulting the other, invited leading sopranos of the day to audition. First it is the turn of the grand and famous Madame Goldentrill, who sings a moving aria about parting and devotion (My love and I are parted), and is promptly offered the part of Donna Pantea. During the ensuing congratulatory atmosphere the aspirant Ms Warblewell arrives, to the great embarrassment of Frank who tries to pass her off as a cleaner. Puzzled, Warblewell sings her audition piece in German (Bester Jüngling) to the delight of Angel and Frank and the disdain of Goldentrill. Frank is then faced with two squabbling women both expecting the same role. They begin an acrimonious duet in which they boast their rival skills, until Angel intervenes, insisting that such criticism only degrades art. Frank saves the day when he discovers that there isn't actually any music for Donna Pantea but that they are in need of two other, equally-matched sopranos. The final ensemble is a rondo in which the quartet, unexpectedly joined by Bluff, combine to point the moral of the story.
Historical Background
Jeremy Gray
In the autumn of 1785 Mozart began work on the Marriage of Figaro, but broke off when he received a command from the Emperor Joseph to write a short opera for a special royal occasion: the Emperor's sister the Archduchess Christina Maria and her husband the Duke Albrecht Kasimir of Sachsen-Teschen, Governor-General of the Austrian Netherlands were making a state visit to Vienna, and at the same time Prince Stanislas Poniatowski, nephew of the King of Poland, was also in Vienna. In celebration the Emperor planned a grand musical evening at Schonbrunn Palace where two one-act operas would be performed. One of these was Prima la musica, e poi le parole by Mozart's rival Salieri, and the other was Der Schauspieldirektor, a ‘comedy with music’ by Mozart. The first, private, performance, took place on 7 February and was soon followed by three public performances.
The idea of the plot of Der Schauspieldirektor was said to have been given to Gottlieb Stephanie by the emperor himself. (Stephanie had earlier collaborated with Mozart in Die Entfiihrung aus dem Serail). The plot, not an original one, dealt, to Mozart's great appeal, with the difficulties of an impresario in assembling a theatrical company in Salzburg. Most modern productions either drastically cut or completely re-write Stephanie's text which is over-long and somewhat mediocre: amongst the nineteenth century versions was one by Schneider (1845), subtitled ‘Mozart and Schikaneder’, in which the characters were portrayed as Mozart, Schikeneder (the actor-manager and librettist of The Magic Flute) and Aloysia Lange (Mozart's sister-in-law, and an accomplished soprano of the day). For this production, Bampton Summer Opera presents it as a prologue to the Cairo Goose.