Magdalena Kozena sings Mozart in Versailles

Sobre o Evento

This programme, filled with a dizzying range of emotions, requires performers whose musical technique is perfect and who are supremely inventive in expressing feeling: mezzo‐soprano Magdalena Kozena and conductor Nathalie Stutzmann fit the bill ideally. They can count on the rich tonality of the Orfeo 55 period instruments.

The Czech mezzo‐soprano Magdalena Kozena has had a brilliant career over the past 15 years after she was revealed to international audience when she joined the troupe of the Vienna Volksoper in 1996 (aged only 23) and then conquered Paris in the production of Gluck’s Orfeo directed by Gardiner (1999).

Since then, she has been a regular guest of the greatest stages worldwide: the Glyndebourne Festival with Simon Rattle (her husband since 2008), the Vienna Festival with Marc Minkowski, the Metropolitan Opera of New York with James Levine, as well as Berlin, London, Aix en Provence, etc. Handel, Bach and Mozart revealed her, but now she covers the whole repertoire with passion, thanks to her sumptuous timbre: from Melisande to Carmen, she lends her voice to the greatest heroines of opera.

In Versailles, Magdalena Kozena dedicates her concert in the Hall of Mirrors to Mozart and Haydn, an obvious combination. With Mozart, we should always be wary of appearances. His apparent lightness covers great depths, and inversely: because every aria is imbued with theatrical and operatic subtlety. In his operas, Mozart seeks to capture those moments when his characters switch to a different register, when conflicting feelings overlap (Cherubino’s aria “Non piu cosa de” in Figaro), when regrets are added to love (Sesto lamenting the loss of his friend and sacrificing his beloved in “Deh per questo istanto solo” in La Clemenza di Tito), or when anguish submerges everything (the magnificent aria “Vado ma dove o dei” K.583 composed to be included in a work by Martin y Soler). He shared this art of psychological ambiguity with his master and friend Joseph Haydn in whose work appearances are just as deceptive. Composed in 1789, Ariadne at Naxos is a major dramatic piece with two long recitatives and two arias for soprano. This cantata by Haydn quickly became immensely popular for the way it depicts the inner torments of the Cretan princess abandoned by Theseus with striking psychological conviction. It was the vocal work of Haydn that Rossini preferred.

The extraordinary celebrity of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 and his Eine kleine Nachtmusik should not lead us to forget their exceptionally elaborate architecture and their formal perfection. As regards the latter, what do we really know? Mozart indeed regularly composed entertainments for private parties (a way for him to earn money quickly) but does not the irrepressible cheerfulness of this score indicate that he composed it above all for his own pleasure?

* Category Prestige: the best seats, a glas of champagne and the program.