Finding Mozart

Like many prolific creatives, Mozart didn’t always finish what he started. One man’s drafts are another musician’s treasure, though, and City Opera has seen fit to bring some of Mozart’s unfinished works to life with The Lost Operas of Mozart, running Oct. 27-29 at Christ Church Cathedral.

It’s the first time that these three works have ever been performed together. It’s also the first time City Opera—a professional chamber opera company—has tackled Mozart. In another first, Lost Operas marks the debut of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra maestro Bramwell Tovey on stage in an operatic role—a comedy, no less.

We caught up with City Opera musical director Charles Barber to find out more about picking up where Mozart left off. —Kelsey Klassen

Image: Elaina Moreau, Bramwell Tovey and Rose-Ellen Nichols in City Opera’s the ‘Lost Operas of Mozart’. Emily Cooper photo

 

Why did Mozart leave these operas unfinished? 

There are different reasons in each case, but the common thread is that Mozart was a freelance composer in his early twenties, and got better offers elsewhere. He simply never returned to them.

 

Have they ever been performed in Vancouver before? 

Not to our knowledge. Nor anywhere as a package, we believe. This is a first, if Dr. Google is to be believed.

 

How did you tie them together?

Stage director Alan Corbishley invented the concept of Limbo as our setting. Lost souls have been waiting for 200 years for Mozart to give them life.

[Scriptwriter] Maria Reva, on commission from us, created a bizarre and brilliant script that gives identity and personality to these seven singers. Their lines are funny, anachronistic, and charming. Opera-goers have never seen anything like it.

 

Did you have to compose any new music for the evening? 

Generally, no. We did complete harmonies that Mozart left empty, when it was clear where he would have gone had he completed the work. We put new words in his mouth, but no new music.

 

What are your goals with the show? 

To do our first comedy, our first Mozart, and our first show at Christ Church Cathedral. We want to widen the modern audience for opera, and to make them welcome with music they have never heard before – written by the best-known composer in the world.

 

What do these three operas teach us about Mozart? His style, his process etc. 

It is simply astounding how much he wrote. Mozart died at 35. He wrote his first piano music at age four, his first symphony at eight, and his first opera at 12. It is equally incredible that he was able to finish—and perfect—so much music. Our three ‘lost’ operas are highly unusual in many ways, and show us something about Mozart’s unparalleled genius in music—and what he might have done had he finished these three works. There has never been anyone like him, and this week we see why.

 

There are lots of firsts. What excites you about the production? 

City Opera is the first company, we believe, to present these three works re-constructed and linked together. We emphasize their comedy, and their ingenuity. For us, that’s a very exciting premise.

 

Tell me about casting Bramwell Tovey in his first operatic role? What does he bring to it? 

Bramwell is a great friend of City Opera, and one of the wittiest men in Canada. We asked him last November if he would accept a speaking role in Lost Operas, and he immediately said yes. He brings his charisma and comedy to every line as The Impresario. He is the person visited by the ghosts who have been waiting 200 years to sing the music Mozart never finished.

There is a double joke going on. Bramwell the man has a profound love and gift in music. Bramwell the Impresario is a very different character, and we play on the ironies. So does he. Rehearsals with him are a total delight. And he has promised not to sing.

 

Can you give us your own synopsis of the plot? 

You bet. Our reconstruction takes place in the 21^st Century. An Impresario is sitting in a darkened space, considering his next project. To his astonishment, the Gates of Limbo open before him. Out come spirits, lost souls who have been waiting 200 years for Mozart to finish his work. They beg the Impresario for a chance to be born, and to sing. They have been practicing, and squabbling, and dealing with abandonment issues for two centuries. The Impresario agrees… but on one condition.

 

There’s still a bit of an intimidation factor when it comes to opera, but Lost Operas seems fun and lighthearted. Are you guys having fun with it? 

Absolutely! Our singers and orchestra are superb, Bramwell is hilarious, the music is glorious, all of this is a ‘premiere’ – and everyone is welcome.

Lost Operasof Mozart is a comedy. It is designed for people who worry that opera is only about heroines who all die by coughing, or jumping off cliffs.

Part of our goal as a company is to bring opera to people where they live, and to a place of joy and delight where they feel. Opera is for everybody.

 

How does this kind of original work fit with the mandate of City Opera?

Everything we do is new, in some special way. Our previous works have all been premieres here. Our last, Pauline, was the premiere of Margaret Atwood’s first opera.

Our next, by Marie Clements and Brian Current, is about missing and murdered aboriginal women. They are writing a powerful and difficult work. It is a story everyone knows, from the vantage of a women no one remembers. We open in November 2017.

We try to tell stories in music that are unusual, bold, vivid, and memorable. Whether comedy or tragedy, that is our purpose.