Leopold Hager

One final Mozart selection today.

That's from a 1982 recording that Judith Blegen made in Salzburg with Leopold Hager and the Mozarteum Orchestra.

It's of Mozart's unfinished singspiel Zaide, and it is the glorious aria "Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben." It just so happens that couple weeks ago I was comparing and contrasting versions of this very aria and coming up with some of my very favorites.

And the top three were Lucia Popp, Edith Mathis, and Judi Blegen herself.

Rumours circulated suggesting that there was no way a 12-year-old could compose an opera.

It must have been being written by Mozart's Pushy and one suspects somewhat abrasive father Leopold and passed off as the work of his son.

I have to say I have some sympathy for the suspicions.

Child prodigies, particularly in the world of classical music, are actually in pretty good supply.

The 15-year-old Mozart was commissioned to write it for a royal wedding in Milan, and it is filled with allegorical representations of deities and figures from ancient history there on the stage to celebrate the happy couple.

But whilst I don't think you're going to see it on stage any time soon, here is the three-minute overture, and I think it is typically delightful early Mozart.

This is Leopold Hager conducting the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra.

The overture from Mozart's opera Ascarnio in Alba.