Mozart Odysseys III: Rex tremendus

To celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday, the Salzburg Festival prepared a 100% Mozart lineup for new fans and seasoned experts to relish. For three weeks, audiences had the chance to discover and rediscover works from Mozart’s repertoire, spanning from his childhood to celebrity status. The Irrfahrten (Odysseys) trilogy — directed, choreographed, and co-written by the multi-talented Joachim Schlömer — highlights the lesser-known works in Mozart's repertoire: from his very first true opera buffa in three acts, La Finta Semplice (Irrfahrten I), to the unfinished Lo sposo deluso and L'oca del Cairo (Irrfahrten III: Rex tremendus), via the musical setting of the composer's epistolary correspondence (Irrfahrten II: Abendempfindung). These operas stand alongside a number of instrumental pieces, Lieder, sacred works, and other musical "odysseys". The full trilogy is available on medici.tv!

Composed in 1783, Lo sposo deluso, also known as La rivalità di tre donne per un solo amante—‘the disappointed husband’ or ‘the rivalry of three women for a single lover’ in English—echoes the love conflicts portrayed in the first two parts of the Irrfahrten trilogy. But with a twist! Mozart had planned two acts but ended up composing only one unfinished act. We only have the first twenty minutes of what was originally meant to be an hour-long opera buffa. Historians speculate that Mozart’s abandonment of this work is due to having picked up a Da Ponte’s proposal in 1785 to set music to the Le Nozze de Figaro libretto. Lo sposo deluso was not the only work left unfinished by Mozart: that same year, after only four months of work, the three-act buffa opera L'oca del cairo—“the goose of Cairo”—was also abandoned, with only seven of the ten pieces completed. The end of Varesco's libretto for the work was problematic in Mozart’s eyes with its grotesque imitation of the Trojan horse, and is thought to be the probable reason for his abandonment.

For this final installment, Joachim Schlömer gives these two pieces something they have been missing for several centuries: the honor of being part of a complete work. The first two acts of Rex Tremendous are enhanced by a ballet in the third act—the director and choreographer’s favorite art form, who trained as a dancer! This blissful reunion sounds like a fitting end to our many ‘peregrinations’ in the life of the legendary composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.