Program Notes, ©2013 Lori Newman
Program Notes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Overture to Così fan tutte (1790)
(Born 1756, Salzburg, Austria; died 1791, Vienna, Austria)
What is the purpose of an opera’s overture? In opera’s early days, the overture was quite brief and really just there to pass the time as the curtain opened. As the genre developed, so did the overture. The overture assembled many of the most important themes that would later be heard in the opera into one cohesive unit for the purpose of foreshadowing melodic material. In Mozart’s day, the aforementioned is true, but there was another purpose to the overture: to alert the audience to take their seats. During Mozart’s operatic heyday, many went to the opera not so much for the opera itself, but rather to be seen at the opera. We would never imagine paying this type of disrespect to the musicians or the composer with today’s standards of audience etiquette, but in the 18th century, this behavior was de rigueur.
Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte is the third work to result from the composer’s collaboration with the brilliant librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (the other two being Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro). The title translates many ways, but “All Women Act That Way” is perhaps the most accurate. Così is an opera buffa (comedy) which was commissioned by Emperor Joseph II, known as a great patron of the arts. The plot is convoluted and silly, and in short, revolves around two couples and an instigator. The opera opens in a coffeehouse where Ferrando and Guglielmo are confidently stating that their fiancées are pure as the driven snow, and would under no circumstances ever be unfaithful to them. Enter the cynic, Don Alfonso, who wagers the men that he can get their women to prove that they, like all women, are fickle. The boys pretend to be called off to war, but in actuality, return in disguises and try to seduce the others’ fiancée. The ladies ward off the advances of their disguised suitors for quite some time, but eventually fall prey to the prank. Wackiness ensues, but eventually all works out in the end and the couples forgive each other for their indiscretions.
Così fan tutte premiered on January 26, 1790 in Vienna. It was immediately successful, but only had five performances before the death of Joseph II, at which time all of the opera houses were shut down in honor of the Emperor. Joseph II’s successor was not nearly as enamored with the arts, and was especially loathsome of buffa, so Così fan tutte fell into obscurity for quite some time. This was partially due to Vienna’s new leadership, but also, the subject matter was too risqué for some opera companies as times and tastes evolved in the nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries. After World War II, Così fan tutte resumed its place as the third great Mozart/da Ponte collaboration, and has remained a mainstay in the operatic repertoire ever since.
The overture opens with a brief slow introduction leading into an effervescent presto. Unlike many opera overtures, especially later ones by Rossini and Wagner, the overture to Così contains nearly no melodic material from the opera. The only exception to this are the chords used to end the andante introduction – these same chords are used in Don Alfonso’s aria “Tutti accusan le donne” toward the end of the opera, as he sings the words “Così fan tutte!”
Ludwig van Beethoven Mass in C, op. 86 (1807)
(Born 1770, Bonn, Germany; died 1827, Vienna, Austria)
It is hard to imagine with today’s reverence surrounding the works of Beethoven, not to mention his great success as a composer during his lifetime, that he could have ever composed a work that was disliked as much as his Mass in C was at the time of its premiere. This view was not universally held, but the commissioner of the work, the Hungarian Prince Nicholas Esterházy II, called it “unbearably ridiculous and detestable.”
The Prince had commissioned the Mass in 1807 for his wife’s name day (a European tradition of celebrating the date associated with your given name; in this case, September 8, for Esterházy’s wife, Princess Maria Hermenegild). The honor of composing the Princess’s name day Mass had gone to Josef Haydn from 1796 – 1802, the lesser known composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, from 1804 – 1806, and Ludwig van Beethoven in 1807. Beethoven was somewhat out of his element, having never composed in the Mass genre, and feeling much pressure to live up to the masterpieces that Haydn had previously written for the occasion. He stated his trepidation in a letter to the Prince saying, “I shall deliver the Mass to you with timidity, since you are accustomed to having the inimitable masterpieces of the great Haydn performed for you.” The Mass in C premiered on September 13, 1807, at the Prince’s home in Eisenstadt, Austria, with Beethoven conducting.
In an effort to set his Mass apart from his predecessors’, he wrote his work with several new conventions that did not appeal to the Prince, or the audience. Firstly, the Mass was more spiritual than the Viennese audience and the Prince would have been accustomed. Beethoven experimented with the types of accompaniments to the choral selections (for example, a vocal portion of the Sanctus is accompanied merely by timpani), and he placed a premium on chromaticism, harmonic development, and text painting, especially to convey great suffering or great joy at appropriate junctures. At the Mass’s post-concert reception, the Prince approached Beethoven and uttered, “My dear Beethoven, what is it you have done here?”
Needless to say, the Prince’s words did nothing to endear him to Beethoven, especially because Beethoven was fairly pleased with the finished product, even programming it for some of his most important future concerts. After the Prince’s harsh statement, Beethoven unsurprisingly decided not dedicate the work to the Esterházys, nor did he provide the Prince with the score. Ever the intrepid businessman, Beethoven instead shopped the work around to his publishers to be sold as a package with some of his more popular symphonies.
Whether the debacle of his Mass in C was to blame, or merely compositional circumstances were not ideal, Beethoven did not again try his hand at a Mass for many years when he finally began composition on his powerhouse Missa solemnis in 1819. While the Mass in C is often overshadowed by the much larger and grandiose Missa solemnis, it has not been completely discounted or overlooked by critics and audiences alike.
