Mozart: Zaide; Der Schauspieldirektor

Mozart himself appears to have lost interest in Zaide; he left it unfinished, stowed it away and never mentioned it again. There cannot be many more eloquent testimonials to the pressure of material in his mind, clamouring to take shape and be born. The 15 numbers that constitute the piece we know under this title (Mozart gave it no name) show the mind fully engaged in the task and producing music that is, by turn, so tender, passionate and charming that no other composer (except perhaps Bach) could Just have pushed it into the bottom drawer and forgotten about it. Most lovely is the single well-known aria, "Rube sanft", but the trio ending Act 1 almost matches it in beauty and impresses greatly in its sustained, cohesive development. There is also a fine fierce aria of defiance for the soprano ("Tiger! Wetze nur die Klaven"), a noble solo for baritone following it, and a final quartet that achieves a rare exultancy in its affirmation of the right to freedom. Other Mozart operas come to mind from time to time; curiously though, I found the most insistent associations were with Fidelio. The performance is strongly directed by Bernhard Klee, though both he and the singer (Edith Mathis) seem to take a somewhat prosaic view of "Rube sanft". She is at her best in the "Tiger" aria, but elsewhere is unable to shield the listener from an awareness that Mozart has not been kind in settling the tessitura of the soprano's music. Schreier and Hollweg are a well-contrasted pair of tenors, and Wixell sings with sturdy forthright tone if not with the purest legato. -- Gramophone [4/1992]