Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, John Aler, Sharon Baker :: Mozart: The Impresario/ Mozart's Circle: The Beneficent Dervish

Mozart's The Impresario is the one-act singspiel about squabbling sopranos whose trifling nature leads audiences to assume it must be an early work. In fact, it's a mature score, written alongside The Marriage of Figaro. This recording, done with period forces, has a light, clean elegance with neither the rhythmic energy of, say, an Eliot Gardiner reading nor the vocal beauty of the (out-of-print) classic John Pritchard recording for Decca (which had Kiri te Kanawa and Edita Gruberová as the divas). Cynthia Sieden and Sharon Baker, however, make well-balanced rivals in the lead roles. Bright and agile, they're equipped for the high-flying coloratura Mozart puts their way. There is, alas, no evidence that Mozart put anything in the way of The Beneficent Dervish, and it shows in a score that offers not too much beyond period charm. But it's of interest as one of the musical pantomimes devised by Schikaneder just before The Magic Flute (another was The Philosopher's Stone, to which Mozart almost certainly did contribute). And dramatically, if not musically, it has so much in common with Flute that it almost qualifies as a preliminary sketch. This is the premiere recording, and it's neatly put together by Boston Baroque, one of the most respected ensembles of its kind in North America. The spangled exuberance of the writing--whoever did it--comes over with relish. And the elegant, scaled-down performances of singers like John Aler and (again) Sharon Baker make the whole thing pleasant enough--although you may not want to hear it twice. --Michael White