Mackerras conducts Mozart’s ‘Lucio Silla’ 1973

Charles Mackerras’s 1973 studio recording of Mozart’s early opera Lucio Silla, one of the series produced in Manchester by Ernest Warburton, brought before the public a work that was little known at the time.  It was also an important part of Mackerras’s determination to break 19th century performing habits.  He had shocked the musical world with his revolutionary approach to vocal ornamentation in his 1965 production of The Marriage of Figaro and this recording is another aggressive and revolutionary statement of his purpose.

As ever with Charles Mackerras, this interpretation combines tremendously vital theatrical energy with extensive scholarly research.  Although there is over three hours of music, Mackerras keeps the dramatic pace tight by cutting many of the extensive secco recitatives. But in line with his influential 1963 musicological essay published in Opera Magazine he insists that the female singers add appoggiaturas at every conceivable point and he saturated the vocal lines with added trills, turns and wide-leaping vocal flourishes.  In particular, he sourced Mozart’s own historically documented re-writing of Cecilius’s Act 2 aria Ah se a morir mi chiama  (Ah, if to death he calls me in this translation) to produce the version sung on this recording.  Later in his career Mackerras substantially modified his approach to ornamentation in Mozart, but this trailblazing recording was made to prove his point.

Lucio Silla was Mozart’s eighth work for the stage, his last for the Italian public and was commissioned by the Court Theatre of Milan.  First performed on December 26 1772 it was a tremendous success, but since that time it had been largely dismissed as a static, formulaic exercise in the opera seria tradition.  But it shows the 16-year old Mozart pushing the boundaries of the form, and it is full of daring orchestration and excitingly challenging vocal writing.  This recording by Mackerras was an important milestone in the opera’s revival.

The BBC assembled a fine cast for this recording, led by two major British artists of the period:  Pauline Tinsley as Cecilius (originally written for a castrato) and John Mitchinson as Silla.  Both singers had an extraordinary range and would go on to perform much heavier repertoire, including Wagner and Strauss, but here they meet with ease the demands of much more florid music.  Tinsley worked with Mackerras often (including as Leonore in Beethoven’s Leonore, as Elizabeth in Mary Stuart and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni) and he must have been confident that she could cope if he threw the works at her by way of vocal pyrotechnics.  She combines steely strength with great flexibility but also tenderness when required – as in the love duet that ends Act 1.  The part of Silla is much less ornate, but Mitchinson brings great sensitivity, virility and clarion richness of tone to the part.  His articulation of Andrew Porter’s translation of the text is outstanding and adds to the dramatic effect of the music.  Above all, Mackerras propels the score with huge energy and supports the singers at all moments.  He manages to get a clean, clear, incisive sound from the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra, a harbinger of his future work in developing a period sound with orchestras such as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)

Lucio Silla

Track 1: Introduction

Track 2: Act 1

Track 3: Act 2

Track 4: Act 3

The recording was taken from a BBC broadcast made on 7 April 1973.

The recording was donated to Music Preserved by Nigel Simeone.