Lucio Silla, concert version: Komische Oper Berlin

About the Event

The Komische Oper presents a concert version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's early work Lucio Silla, which was written when then composer was just 16 years old.

Mozart — May at the Komische Oper Berlin. After Il re pastore last season, Lucio Silla represents another early work in a series of concertante performances of Mozart operas. The composer, aged just 16 at the time this piece was written, has already discovered how to pack this opera seria with magnificent arias, which are in no way inferior to those of his later masterpieces!

The work focuses on the cruel dictator Lucio Silla, whose reign of terror heralded the ultimate decline of the Roman Empire. He relentlessly disposes of his enemies, subsequently attempting to possess not only their property but also their wives. Such tyranny prompts rebellion, but all efforts to dispose of Silla come to nothing as the potential assassins are also fighting against each other. Not until the dictator embraces "Clemenza" does the spiral of violence come to an end. By exercising mercy and renouncing revenge or excessive force, Lucio Silla ends up as the embodiment of humanist enlightenment, claiming: "I am no longer a dictator. I'm the same as you all!"

A rare musical experience, with Olga Pudova, acknowledged worldwide as the Queen of the Night, as Silla’s fiancee Cecilio. Presented under the musical direction of the young Estonian conductor Kristiina Poska.

Dramma per musica in three acts (1772). Libretto by Giovanni de Gamerra.

Crew

Kristiina Poska, musical direction
David Cavelius, choir

Cast

Lucio Silla, a dictator: Lothar Odinius
Giunia, Cecilio‘s fiancé: Olga Pudova
Cecilio, a banished senator: Karolina Gumos
Lucio Cinna, a friend of Cecilio‘s: Mirka Wagner
Celia, Silla’s sister: Alma Sadé