Mozart: Zaide (haselbock)
Label: CPO Catalog: 7772812 Format: CD Isabel Monar, Markus Schäfer, Markus Brutscher, Christian Hilz, Wiener Akademie, Martin HaselböckThis opera is an early, too often ignored masterpiece which Mozart unfortunately did not quite complete. After he heard that the emperor in Vienna – Joseph II – had expressed an interest in a German opera, he began, presumably in 1779, to compose the Singspiel (opera with spoken passages) ‘Zaide’. He used the libretto of his friend Schachtner, who had also written the text for “Bastien and Bastienne”. Schachtner chose as his subject one of the ‘Turkish’ fairy tales that were so popular at the time, which dealt with captured Europeans and Turkish sultans, slavery, liberation and gallantry. However, his characters are one-dimensional and the conflicts immature. Probably this is the reason why Morzart never finished the work. The substantial music that he wrote, however, is as valuable as everything else he penned and he himself was confident about the quality of the piece. Martin Haselboeck has produced a stirring new recording. Price: $48.98 |