Capricious Lovers: The English Opera in Mozart’s London

Intro

A concert of highlights from the English operas that were performed at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane during Mozart’s time in London. The programme includes arias from operas by George Rush, Michael Arne & Jonathan Battishill, William Bates and Thomas Arne, many of which are receiving their first performance in modern times.

Programme

The Capricious Lovers:
Overture (Allegro – Allegretto – Allegro)
“Thus laugh’d at, jilted and betray’d”
“How strange the mode which truth neglects”
“If tyrant love with cruel dart”
Trio, “For thee my love shall ever burn”

Almena:
“Till thou seest the timid fawn”

“Would you taste of freedom’s charms”
“The martial host and tented plain”

Pharnaces: “In this I fear my latest breath”
“The spectre Death when view’d from far”
Trio, “The gracious pow’rs with timely care”

The Guardian Outwitted:
Overture (Con spirito – Larghetto – Andantino ed amoroso)
Duet, “O Dolly, I part with a hole in my heart”
“When from beauty sweetly blooming”
“O how great is the vexation”

“To speak my mind” (Duni)
“In love to pine” (the late Elector of Saxony)
“Hist, hist! I hear my mother call!” (Arnold)
Duet, “My life, my joy” (J.C.Bach)

Artaxerxes:
“If the river’s swelling waves”
“By that belov’d embrace”
“Monster, away!”
“Thou like the glorious sun”