Classical Music Discoveries

Before Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his first complete opera, Bastiene and Bastienne, even a truly gifted child prodigy needed a little help in learning to compose in the very demanding opera genre.

This week we rewind the clock a bit to when the young Mozart was 11-years old. Mozart was commissioned by the Archbishop of Salzburg to compose his first sacred musical play called TheObligation of the First and Foremost Commandment.

The opera was composed in 1767 with the help from two tutors: Michael Hayden and Anton Adlgasser. The libretto, according to the title page, is attributed to J.A.W., which is generally attributed to Ignatz Anton von Weber.

This opera is in 3 parts. Part 1 was composed by the 11-year old Mozart, Parts 2 and Part 3 were composed by Mozart’s tutors. Only Mozart’s Part 1 has survived the years since 1767. It is very possible that Mozart’s tutors did not want their contributions to be overshadowed by Mozart, a major problem which all of Mozart’s contemporaries would have to contend with, so they pulled their contributions to the opera to avoid musical embarrassment.

The performances were predominantly in Salzburg in St. Peter’s Cathedral. The opera includes many recitatives for all the characters and each character also sings one to three arias. The main characters of the opera are 2 tenors, a Zealous Christian and Spirit of Christianity and 3 sopranos, Divine Justice, Divine Mercy and Worldliness. The opera does not have a chorus.

Part 1 of the opera was first performed on March 12, 1767 in the Knight’s Hall of the Palace of the Archbishop in Salzburg.

This performance is by the CMD Philharmonic and Chorus of Paris and is conducted by Dominique Beaulieu. The recording is available at ClassicalRecordings.co