Oct 10, 2026 · 1 hr 25 min · 10 segments
Why Mozart Opera Overtures? Well, whilst they were not really intended to be stand-alone pieces they have in many instances become favourites of concert programmers and broadcasters, not to mention…
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
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And it was performed by the C.P.E. Bach Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Peter Schreier.
It concerns a smart young woman who poses as somewhat less bright than she really is to outwit two disappointingly unworthy suitors.
Which sounds like it would have been a fun night out for the court, but it was not exactly.
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.
Child prodigies, particularly in the world of classical music, are actually in pretty good supply.
But of even the handful of other child genius composers, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, etc., no one has ever written anything on the scale of La Finta Semplice.
I'm not sure if they'll let you, but that is where the 588 handwritten manuscript pages of the opera have ended up.
Okay, I'd say there is very little chance anyone is going to be seeing Mozart's 1771 opera Ascanio in Alba any time soon.
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.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
¶¶ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¶¶ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ Thank you.
And it was performed by the C.P.E. Bach Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Peter Schreier.
It concerns a smart young woman who poses as somewhat less bright than she really is to outwit two disappointingly unworthy suitors.
Which sounds like it would have been a fun night out for the court, but it was not exactly.
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.
Child prodigies, particularly in the world of classical music, are actually in pretty good supply.
But of even the handful of other child genius composers, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, etc., no one has ever written anything on the scale of La Finta Semplice.
I'm not sure if they'll let you, but that is where the 588 handwritten manuscript pages of the opera have ended up.
Okay, I'd say there is very little chance anyone is going to be seeing Mozart's 1771 opera Ascanio in Alba any time soon.
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.
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