Zaide is an unfinished, though very full, fragment which
Mozart never saw performed. It has been completed various times,
though, and it is worth a listen, not least because it dates from
a key moment in Mozart’s life. He wrote it after his major tour
of 1777-79 wherein he had sought a commission for a new opera
from musical centres as prestigious as Mannheim and Paris. It had all come to nothing, though, and he arrived
back at Salzburg in low spirits. It was then, however, that he heard
that Emperor Joseph II had expressed an interest in founding a
German Opera in Vienna,
and so Mozart began work on Zaide
to prepare himself for what might become an imperial commission.
The text was written by his friend Johann Andreas Schachtner,
who had also written the libretto for Bastien and Bastienne,
and for his subject he chose a “Turkish” story, so fashionable
in Austria at that time. The story centred on a European, Gomatz, working as a slave
for Sultan Soliman. He falls in love with Zaide, the Sultan’s
favourite, and they plan to escape assisted by another European,
Allazim. However, they are thwarted and face a sentence of torture
and death until the Sultan relents and forgives them. Knowing
all this, it’s not surprising that many musicologists see Zaide
as a dry-run for Seraglio
and there are some undeniable similarities; Zaide’s Act 2 arias
Trostlos and Tiger are similar in tone to Konstanze’s Traurigkeit and Martern aller Arten. But it would be a mistake to see Zaide as anything other than what it is. It is nowhere near
as well developed as the later work and Mozart’s melodic invention
isn’t nearly as inspired. It still has lots to recommend it, though.
Mozart broke off because he felt the denouement of the plot was
too implausible, so for this recording we are provided with a
Brian Michaels’ rearrangement of the Quartet K 479 as a finale,
and very satisfying it is, too. Arguably too much so, in fact:
the later quartet is on a much higher level of inspiration than
what precedes it so that you can easily see the join. In addition
there is no overture, so this version, like most others, plays
the work G major Symphony No. 32 (K 318) instead, and it works
very well.
The
Wiener Akademie are a small period band, and their playing has
a zesty energy to it that is evident from the overture onwards.
The recording engineers capture them close-up but still preserve
a sense of intimacy. Conductor Martin Haselböck keeps things
moving along at a fair lick and he cuts the spoken dialogue
to a minimum so that the action is not held up, and a good thing
too, as a work like this can easily drag. He,
at least, is convinced by this work. He knows how to relax,
though, such as in the beautiful and well known melody of Ruhe
Sanft, Zaide’s first aria in Act 1. Isabel Monar sings with
capability but not much else: her singing sounds rather workaday,
and top notes sound strained at various points throughout the
set. It’s also difficult to believe that this Zaide is a naïve
young maiden – she sounds rather knowing and mature here. Christian
Hiltz’s Allazim has the opposite problem: he sounds noble, but
too young for the elderly sage he is meant to be portraying.
Markus Schäfer’s tenor is earnest, but not especially interesting
and certainly not beautiful. When he falls in love with Zaide’s
portrait he does so rather less subtly than Tamino does with
Pamina’s, but that’s more Mozart's fault than his. The best
of the singers is Christian Hilz as the Sultan. He is missing
for whole of Act 1, but as soon as he arrives, singing an aria
of murderous rage accompanied by raging trumpets and drums,
the dramatic pace quickens and we feel more involvement. His
melologue (spoken dialogue to orchestral accompaniment) is much
more successful than Gomatz’s in Act 1, but both are interesting
as they remain, to my knowledge, the only such examples in Mozart’s
output. It’s a dramatic problem, though, that the Sultan sounds
much better than Gomatz, who is meant to be the hero. His second
aria is the highlight of the piece. The quartet which precedes
the finale is great music, but it is full of individuals rather
than an ensemble, though they blend much better for the adapted
finale itself.
The
catalogue isn’t exactly bursting with recordings of Zaide at present, so this one will serve the purpose if you
want the work, but it would be far better to see the return of
Paul Goodwin’s version with the AAM on Harmonia Mundi. This one
has too many inconsistencies.
Simon Thompson
