Mozart was passionate about the theatre from his early childhood. He had already composed four stage works when in 1770 he received a commission from Milan to write his first opera seria — still the leading theatrical genre of the time, not to mention the most prestigious. With a libretto based on a tragedy by the great French classicist Jean Racine, the opera features a historical figure as its title character: Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, who waged long wars against the Romans for dominance in Asia Minor and Greece in the first century bc. Before returning home, Mozart’s Mitridate spreads the rumour that he was slain in his most recent battle. Aiming to test the loyalty of his two sons with this experiment, he only piles further humiliation on top of his military defeat: he is forced to realize that Farnace is in league with the Romans and plans to compete against his brother Sifare for the love of Aspasia — the woman to whom Mitridate himself had been betrothed before his campaign. The king completely loses his composure, turns into a raging tyrant, and resolves without a second thought to have his sons and Aspasia put to death. To reach the ‘lieto fine’, the culminating moment of forgiveness and reconciliation prescribed by the principles of opera seria, the characters must traverse a volatile emotional landscape. Passing through despair, vengeful fury and gracious self-denial, they make their farewells in the face of death, exchange declarations of love and hope for happiness beyond this world.

The characters’ various emotions are given musical expression in a parade of arias, in which it is impressive to hear how the 14-year-old Mozart had already developed a sophisticated understanding of music drama. His attention was particularly drawn to the scenes in which characters are caught in an existential quandary. The young composer reveals their inner lives to us with such immediacy and intensity that he frequently goes beyond the confines of traditional opera seria, leaving behind the traits of courtly theatrical spectacle that had long defined the genre.