From "Idomeneo" to "Die Zauberflote": A Conductor's Commentary on the Operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (review)

Much of the staying power of Mozart's mature operas—one of the reasons one can attend performance after performance of the same five or six works and never tire of them—resides in the variety, richness, and invention of the instrumental writing. This is not to underestimate the importance of the vocal parts or the enjoyment of seeing one's favorite singers interpret thrice-familiar roles. But, when due attention is paid to the score, the chamber-music-like fabric of the Mozart opera orchestra in dialogue with the voices produces in the listener a unique kind of esthetic pleasure.

From "Idomeneo" to "Die Zauberflöte": A Conductor's Commentary on the Operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart proposes an in-depth analysis of each of the mature scores from the inside out: by discussing the orchestral component of the scores from a conductor's point of view. Part 1 ("Mozart's Evolving Craft and Style") situates the oeuvre in its musico-historical context, offering a bird's-eye-view of stylistic matters such as tempo, key relationships, secco recitative, appoggiaturas, and instrumentation. This section introduces several important issues relating to eighteenth-century performance practice, although its fifteen short pages barely brush the surface of each given topic, making the commentary of more use to the nonprofessional reader than to the trained musician. Part 2 ("The Orchestra's Contribution") proceeds to pick apart the scores, opera by opera: Idomeneo, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Der Schauspieldirektor, the three Da Ponte comedies, La clemenza di Tito, and Die Zauberflöte—a daunting proposition, ostensibly made feasible by the structural arrangement of each chapter, outlining the opera's musical numbers in order of appearance in the score and treating each one in anywhere from a single paragraph to a page or two.

Myer Fredman certainly brings appropriate musical credentials to the task, having been conductor and musical director at the Glyndebourne Festival, conductor and artistic associate with the Australian Opera, and assistant to Otto Klemperer, Sir John Pritchard, and Sir Charles Mackerras. Fredman's hands-on experience conducting the Mozart operas is reflected in many a passing tidbit of professional wisdom or practical advice: for example, he points out places in the scores where Mozart allows time for horn players to change crooks or string players to apply/remove mutes; he cautions conductors that "the opening bar [of Cherubino's first aria] can be precarious for the singer as, being muted as well as p, it is not always easy to hear the orchestra" (p. 74); or that, in bar 79 of Despina's act 2 aria, "the flute and bassoon need an indication for their second beat after the pause even though the strings and horns are sustained" (p. 137). He astutely observes how, in the overture to Così fan tutte, "conductors often overlook the [rhythmic] subtleties written in [the] timpani parts" (p. 125); he also signals traditional cuts and insertions, and musical reminiscences within and among the various scores. Fredman sometimes lays down his baton and puts on the director's hat in order to emphasize the problems inherent in the relationship between what is heard in the pit and what is happening on stage. Lamenting that the "very explicit" stage directions that Schikaneder and Mozart provided for Die Zauberflöte are often ignored by today's producers and designers, he quotes those stage directions in full during the course of the Zauberflöte chapter. His comments about the perennial problem of staging "Martern aller Arten" also reflect a strongly conservative stance:

Considering Mozart's unique concern for dramatic veracity as mentioned many times in his letters, it is extraordinary that he should compose this aria as a quasi Sinfonia Concertante and began [sic] it with...