Il re pastore
- Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia (Tenor)
- Amyntas, son of the king of Sidon, as a shepherd living (soprano [ Tenor ] )
- Elisa, a young Phoenicians (soprano )
- Tamiris, daughter of the tyrant Strato (mezzo- soprano)
- Agenor, a noble Phoenicians, friend of Alexander (tenor, baritone also )
Il Re Pastore ( " The Shepherd King " ) is a serenata in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( KV 208) whose libretto originally edited by Pietro Metastasio. It deals with an episode from the life of Alexander the Great: The collection of Abdalonymus to the king of Sidon.
Orchestra
2 flutes, 2 oboes and English horns, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, strings
Action
The action takes place in Phoenicia, 334 BC - Aminta looking forward to the impending marriage with his beloved Elisa. As Alessandro comes along who has just the Phoenician city of Sidon freed from their tyrants Strato. Alessandro wants to use the rightful king of Sidon again. Agenore shares with Alessandro that this king is none other than Aminta, who knows nothing of his background and unrecognized as a shepherd lives. Alessandro wants to raise not only Aminta to the king, but he also Tamiri, the daughter of the deposed Strato and mistress of Agenore, give to wife. While Agenore and Tamiri decide to follow for the sake of reason to the commandment of the king, and also Elisa has already come to terms with the loss of her lover, to Aminta resists: He shares Alessandro said that he preferred not to the throne than on Elisha. The stirred Alessandro agrees now that Aminta is permitted to marry his Elisa as king. For Agenore and Tamiri that have proved so great magnanimity, he will seek another kingdom, so that they can submit their virtue as a ruler to the test.
Music
Il re pastore is a designed in their contemporary conventions Serenata. This is reflected in the consistently simple diction and structure of the entire score and the selection of topics from among the idyllic, " Arcadian " seal. Large dramatic scenes and extreme emotions are missing. Instead, there is still a more intimate, more moderate and balanced sound. The forms are scarce and concentrated. The overture is in one movement and continues without interruption into the first scene of the first act. This Andantino, a kind of arioso in open form, Mozart used later in a purely instrumental form as a single section again as he the overture to a through-composed symphony (similar KV 318 and KV 184) advanced.
The musical highlight of the opera is Amintas aria L' amero, saro costante in the second act, which takes on a whole different sound by a solo violin and two English horns. Aminta's aria Aer tranquillo in the first act shows a clear thematic relationship to the first movement of Mozart's Violin Concerto in G major KV 216
Mozart's music to Il re pastore was and is often rated as rather conventional occasional work ( such as Wolfgang Hildesheimer ). On the other hand, it is considered that it is a masterful in their youthful freshness and vitality composition.
Formation
Mozart was commissioned to compose Il re pastore occasion of the visit of the Archduke Maximilian Franz, a son of the Empress Maria Theresa, the Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo in Salzburg. The libretto of the Serenata underlying Metastasio was originally dreiaktig: Mozart set to music a (presumably by Giambattista Varesco ) edited and reduced to two acts amended. With the composition Mozart began in March 1775. The premiere took place on 23 April 1775. The libretto had its origin in an older poem Metastasio, entitled Il re pastore (1751 ).