Festa teatrale en deux actes créée le 17 octobre 1771 au Regio Ducale à Milan pour le mariage de l’archiduc Ferdinand d’Autriche avec Marie-Béatrice d’Este sur un livret de Giuseppe Parini.
OPÉRA EN VERSION DE CONCERT
ALISA KOLOSOVA, Ascanio
ANNA EL-KHASHEM, Silvia
MÉLISSA PETIT, Venere
ANLE GOU, Aceste
ELEONORA BELLOCCI, Fauno
CHOEUR DE L’OPÉRA DE ZURICH
KLAAS-JAN DE GROOT, chef de choeur
LES TALENS LYRIQUES
CHRISTOPHE ROUSSET, clavecin et direction
With Ascanio in Alba, we return to ancient Rome: he is, after all, the son of Aeneas, closely linked to the founding of the Eternal City. At first glance, the plot of this opera written for a princely wedding and set in a somewhat naïve pastoral world may seem to lack dramatic intensity. Yet it already contains the seeds of the dramaturgy of Mozart’s final – and finest – works: Venus forbids the love between Silvia and Ascanio, subjecting them to a series of trials to test the strength of their feelings. This clearly foreshadows The Magic Flute, with a Silvia-Pamina and an Ascanio-Tamino, and the theme of pure yet thwarted love. A subtlety that Diane Clément has captured and rendered perceptible with great sensitivity in her staging of these concert performances.
The music is absolutely breathtaking, all the more so when one considers that Mozart was only fifteen when he composed it. This is an opera of pure virtuosity, written to showcase the singers, with dazzling vocal runs and bravura arias; it is simply impossible to perform it without first-rate voices. And indeed, I have brought together a truly sparkling cast: Mélissa Petit, Anna El-Khashem, Alisa Kolosova, Eleonora Bellocci and the young tenor Anle Gou, an impressive singer with whom I am delighted to collaborate for the first time.
This magnificent music can also be rediscovered on disc, as the release of our recording of Ascanio in Alba will be one of the highlights of our discographic season in 2027.
Christophe Rousset