“La finta semplice”〜Mozart's first opera buffa of 1768
 
 

 The thought that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart should make a name for himself particularly in the f1e1d of opera arose for the first time in a letter written by Leopold Mozart in January, 1768, to his landlord in Salzburg, Lorenz Hagenauer. After returning from his extensive European journey in late autumn, 1766, Leopold Mozart, the assistant Kapellmeister to the Archbishop of Salzburg, could not even bear to spend a year in Salzburg. In September, 1767, he traveled with his wife and both children, Wolfgang, by this time eleven years old, and Maria Ama, sixteen years old, to Vienna, the seat of the court. In deed, he wanted to show the Viennese what had become of his son's astonishing talent in the mean time. Mozart's father was probably justified in assuming that news of the success that the young composer and virtuoso had had in Paris, London and The Hague had gotten through to Vienna. Though the Mozarts fled, after just a few weeks, from the smallpox spreading through out Vienna to Brno and Olomouc - wlthout being able to prevent both children from coming down with the disease - they returned to Vienna in the beginning of 1768. just in time to participate in the musical events of the carnival season. But the Viennese music world in the winter of 1768 did not fu1fill their expectations. Though the Viennese celebrated carnival with numerous balls, the imperial court distinguished itself through exceptional austerity, and the aristocracy followed its example.  Moreover, Leopold Mozart believed he saw evidence of jealousy and intrigues among the musicians in Vienna. In any case, his reports to Lorenz Hagenauer dated Janualy 30  and Feburary 3, 1768 put the blame for the lack of success especially on the fact that "all of the pianist and composers inVIenna opposed our progress". And then Leopold Mozart continues: "IN order to convince the public now what the truth of the matter really is, I have decided all at once to chance something quite extraordinary;  namely he shell write an opera for the theater. - and what do you think, what kind of uproar has arisen privately among the composers ? - what?- today, one should see a Gluck and tomorrow a twelve-year-old boy sitting at the piano and conductjng his opera ? - yes, in spite of all of the envious people. " And shortly thereafter it reads: "I first got the idea of having little Wolfgang write an opera, however, from the Emperor himself when he asked Iittle Wolfgang twice if he would like to compose an opera and conduct it himself.  Naturally he accepted, but the Emperor could not say anythjng else since the opera is Affligio's concern.  The consequences (if God helps to bring this to an end)  of this enterprise are so great, but also so easy to perceive, that they need no explanation. Now, I should not regret any costs: for, we will recoup them, if not today, then tomorrow He who takes no risks, wins nothing (...) "   Leopold Mozart of course knew, as far as the venture of an opera was concerned, that he could rely on his son's talent. The twelve-year-old boy had already repeatedly proven that he could adopt any style and compositional technique, and make it is own. After all, his first music-dramatic work, the Latin school opera "Apollo et Hyacinthus" , was an incomparable success one year before. Thus, the Mozarts took the risk of promising an opera for the period followingEaster of the same year.
"But it fs not an opera seria, for, there is no opera seria anymore: and nobody likes it. Instead. an opera buffa. but not a short opera buffa, rather 2 serious 1/2 to 2 hours long. There are  no singers here for　serious operas, even the tragic opera "Alceste" by Gluck was performed by nothing but opera buffa singers.  Now he will do an opera buffa since there
are excellent people here for an opera buffa.(...)  What do you think, isn't the presige of having written an opera for the Viennese theater the best way to gain a reputation not only in Germ, any but also in Italy". Leopold Mozart expected his son's opera to bring him money and honor. Whether or not there was really a formal commission for the composition, whether or not Giuseppe d'Afflisio, the almighty impresario in Vienna at that time, really took the Emperor's suggestion seriously or only supported it halfheartedly, cannot be clearly deduced from Leopold Mozart's wordy reports to Lorenz Hagenauer. Afflisio probably took part himself in the choice of the story and requested the imperial court poet Marco Coltellini to adapt Carlo Goldoni's dramma gjocoso "La finta semplice" for Mozart. But neither the performance nor even the promised fee of 100 ducats ever materialized . Wolfgang had already begun composing the opera at the end of March and his father made it his business, as was customary at that time, to confront the prospective singers for the performance regularly with the freshly composed arias and numbers. But. as Leopold Mozart reported to Salzburg, that only caused "envy to rain upon us from all directions [....]" (Letter to Hagenauer from the 30th of Juiy 1768): 'At that time all of the composers, Gluck js a main protagonist among them, then undelmined everything jn order to thwalt the progress of the opera. The singers were incited, the orchestra was stirred up, and everything was done to stop the performance of this opera.
The singers, who can hardly' read music anyway and must learn one thfng or another completely by ear, should now say that the.v cannot sing the arias which they had previously heard in our room, approved, applauded, and to whfch the.v
had been well-djsposed. The orchestra should now prefernot to be conducted b_v a boy. etc, , and a hundred such things [...] Then they said. not the boy, but the father, composed it. - But here the standerts ,were discredited,' I Iet the next best volume of Metastasio' works be taken. the book opened. and presented Wolfgang with the first aria at hand. He picked up the quill and, without hesitating and with the most astonishing  sppeed, set it to music with many  instrurnents in thc presence of'many persons of esteem ".
Even if we assume that much in these reports is exaggerated due to the failure of the performance to take place, and is perhaps only described so bluntly because Leopold Mozart had to explain to his friend and benefactor Lorenz Hagenauer why he stayed in Vienna for such a long time only to return home without money - even then, Leopold Mozart's letters are enormously informative.
They prove Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's truly inexplicable compositional talent and craftmanship which enable the twelve-year-old boy to readily master a fully foreign motier in such a way that this early test of his talent matches up to the best of the"everyday productions" of that time. Of course much in this opera buffa was schematically retained from the prevailing Italian conventions of theater. How could it have been otherwise in view of the haste in which the composition originated that consists of 558 pages of the original manuscript?  Yet, this "Finta semplice" has so much
music-dramatic instinct, demonstrates so greatly the art of characterization, and contains so much buffoonish temperament ! How can one explain or even comprehend how a twelve-year-old boy could foreshadow in the space of a few weeks both types of musical theater which he was later to master so eminently: German singspiel-opera with the pastoral play "Bastien und Bastienne" which was also composed during the summer of 1768, and opera buffa with "La finta semplice" .
Mozart's unique genius manifested itself in his gift of absorbing, adapting and perfecting everything that he heard and that he was given to learn and experience by his father. This is why, with the insight and sense of responsibility of a born pedagogue. Leopold took him all over Europe. From this perspective Mozart presents, even in his early works a culmination. not a beginning!  At no time he is revolutionary like Beethoven or even constantly experimenting like Haydn.  He never is an innovator. but alwa 's the succesor who compiled and perfected evervthing that came before him. Mazart's consummate artistry encompassed everything : spiritual intellect as well as actual craftsmanship .
This is even true of a work like "La finta semplice". It can definitely be viewed as a stroke of luck that Mozart received a subject, after all , by the great Carlo Goldoni for his first opera buffa.
Even if Marco Coltellini , since the 1763-64 season Pietro Metastasio's successor as court poet in Vienna, was more a craftsman of the theater than a great poet. he did posses enough artistic sense to alter Goldoni's text only in those places where he could expect it to be more effective in the opera.
Some new texts for arias, some cuts in the plot, and an operatically suitable finale for the third act provided the young composer with a thoroughly serviceable libretto.  Above all, Mozart's musicdramatic imagination was stimulated by Goldoni's distinctive characters and, for the first time, he could demonstrate an ability which, for its intensity, has remained unique in the theater. paralleled only by Shakespeare: namely, the capacity to attach to each character its own particular infiection, color and range of expression .
It is truly astonishing how the music of the boy goes its own, unmistakable way without dissociating itself from traditional techniques. The work opens wlth a three-movement sinfonia that Mozart had already written in mid-January. 1768, before there was any mention of the opera. With its somewhat expanded wind instrumentation it forms a splendid. spontaneously musical, but not yet comedyrelated introduction. The first ensemble also seems still quite tentative. But the recitatives already demonstrate Mozart's amazing mastery of musical declamation, while the first aria of the rather noisy Simone immediately reveals this servant character to be precisely outlined prototype of Leporello : Mozart characterizes the role and setting umprecedentedly fine solely by means of the inflection and hectic string figllrations,
Rosina, the lover, is for Mozart the central character, She is given the most alluring melodic passages and the most colorful instrumcntarion. To a certain extent the great female characters including Fiordiligi seem to be foreshadowed here, as well as in the charmingly savored contrast to the half-sentimental, half caricatured Giacinta who seems like a prototype for Dorabella. Mozart also found distinctive means of musical characterization for the maid Ninetta and her folkish. naive coquetry. bringing to mind characters like Despina or Zerlina.
The three remaining male roles are sketched somewhat more conventionaily, although there is enough material to simulate Mozart's imagination in the contrast between both brothers. the peevish, biustering misogynist Don Cassandro and the simple ladies' man Don Polidoro.  A situation like the seduction scene of Rosina and Don Cassandro in the first act and the beautifully baffoonish conflict between Cassandro's newly awakened fervor and his inborn scepticism of anything female automatically generates one of the most full-bodied numbers in the opera. The ravishing fencing scene of Don Cassandro and Fracasso in the second act with its orchestral onomatopoeias is also an amazing example of how Mozart, already in his first opera buffa. rose to new heights without abandoning sure fundamentals : how in this, the boy's scarcely conscious confrontation with the world of the commedia dell'arte, its fulfillment and perfection is already
foreshadowed.
Future generations' neglect of "La finta semplice",  as with almost all of Mozart's early operas, may have at first been caused by the intrigues that prcvented a performance in Vienna in 1768. A performance planned in Saizburg one year later remained, presuming it really did take place without an echo. And when the work whose value and significance at least Mozart's father must have recognized, having taken the score along on his first journey to Italy - was offered to various publishers after Mozart's death the time for a proper evaluation had passed. The nineteenth century and the music and theater world up to the present day did not have a vital rerationship with the world of the commedia dell'arte. Even those who recognized works like "Figaro" and "Cosi fan tutte" as singular peaks in the field of the musical theater did not consider it worth the effort to investigate Mozart's auvre for those highlights that naturally had to lie beneath them. Various arrangements, translations and singspiel versions which here and there made their way to the stage usually served to deepen the misunderstanding.
To that extent, the time may only now be ripe to recognize the significance of Mozart's first opera buffa and to restore it to the consciousness of a large public. The Mozart renaissance in the past 40 years, which has not only provided a new perspective on his music, but also the comprehensive knowledge of his auvre is the result of a mutually fruitful give-and-take between performers and musicologists. Such an epoch-making musicological work like the "New Mozart Edition", which is being published since 1956 under the auspices of the International Stiftung Mozarteum. Salzburg, would be inconceivable without the vital interest of great Mozart interpreters.
Works like "La finta semplice" could not have made their way to the public without the musicological groundwork of the "New Mozart Edition".
This studio production and the concert performance of the work in its uncut original form on the ocassion of the 1983 Mozart Week in Salzburg represent the thoroughly successful conclusion of a production series of early Mozart operas. This was a joint effort of the International Stiftung Mozarteum. Austrian Radio and the record industry: a noteworthy example of selfless cooperation serving a cause. After all. among Mozart's twelve music-dramatic works from 'Apollo et Hyacinthus" to "Zaide" were some which had never before, or at least not in their original form, been performed ; and certainly not as conscientiously as with this growing interpretative "workshop" as it were. Under the direction of Leopold Hager, Salzburg. who has carried on and. through his professionalism, perfected the artistic legacy of the great Mozartean Bernhard Paumgartner, not only has the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra acquired the most self-evident, intimate knowledge of styie and repertory, but also the finest international Mozart singers have formed an ensemble in the traditional sense of the word year after year in Salzburg. Perhaps this production of Mozart's Goldoni opera "La finta semplice" will provide the impetus, as in previous cases. for this precious, first attempt by the greatest of all opera buffa composers to be finally discovered by the stage.
 

SYNOPSIS
The libretto by the Viennese court poet Marco Coltellini was based on a dramma giocoso "La finta semplice" by Carlo Goldoni who had performed it in Venice in 1764 to music by Salvatore Perillo. Goldoni was, for his part, inspired by the　comedy "La Fausse Agnes ou Le Poete campagnard" by the French poet Philippe Nericault Destouches that had been quite succesful in Italy. This conformed to the practice of the time that was concerned less with lasting artistic creationsthan with down-to-earth, practical theater. In this respect, the setting and plot correspond with good commedia tradion. The scene is set near Cremona on the country estate of two rich Italian brothers, both of whom are not married ; the elder Don Cassandro, on principle, because he is a born misogynist, and the younger Don Polidoro because his brother forced him contrary to his inclination for chasing women. The lodgement of the Hungarian captain Fracasso and his servant Simone causes commotion inasmuch as Fracasso and Simone fall in love with Giacinta, the landlords' sister. and her maid Ninetta respectively. Difficulties await this thorough]y harmonious quartet, marking the beginning of the first act. due to Don Cassandro's presumptuous disdain for women and love.
Ninetta therefore proposes that both brothers be made to fall in love with the same woman. Rosina, Fracasso's beautiful and intelligent sister, enters just at the right moment. In no time at all the proud, forbidding Cassandro as well as the awkward Polidoro succumb to her seductive talent. Polidoro tries his luck at getting Rosina to marry him with much too blunt presents and solicitations. Cassandro. who is more reserved, unintentionally has more success: Rosina's feelings for him are aroused. Nevertheless, she heartily makes a fool of him by talking him into giving her a precious ring with which she will blackmail him. Cassandro invites Rosina to lodge in his house so that he can keep an eye on his ring.
The second act brings a rash of complications. Ninetta and Simone quarrel over love and marriage. Fracasso and Cassandro, inflamed from drinking wine, come to blows.  Giacinta makes fun of her brother Polidoro's silly wooing of Rosina, and on the other hand. declares her willingness to marry Fracasso, which irritates Casandro. For his part, Cassandro declares in a state of drunkenness his love for Rosina. But she treats him brusquely with her confession that she loves his brother Polidoro as well as him. This enrages Cassandro and he accuses Rosina of having stolen his ring,
whereupon Fracasso challenges him to a duel. At the last moment Rosina is able to save Cassandro from her brother's sword. In the meantime Ninetta und Simone have thought up a new prank. Giacinta is to be hidden from her brothers who are made to beiieve that their sister has absconded with all of the tre.asures of the house. Ninetta goes along for show, while Rosina gives both brothers the cold shoulder. Only the hope of finding their thievish sister with the help of both soldiers preserves their equanimity.
At the outset of the third act Giacinta and Ninetta are found fleeing from the enraged brothers. However, both women are determined to get married: one to Fracasso, the other to Simone. Rosina confesses to Don Cassandro her love, but
wants to play one more joke on Polidoro. She pretends to ask Don Cassandro for hts brother's hand in marriage, but in reality gives her hand to Don Cassandro himself. In accordance with good buffa tradition the couples are united and only Polidoro remains alone.