Apollo et Hyacintus
composed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | libretto Rufinus Widl
Malibran Theatre
Musicologists use to call Apollo et Hyacinthus the first operatic work of a barely 11-year-old Mozart. It is actually a short mythological drama made up of five arias, two duets, a trio and a chorus, all connected with recitatives. The text by the Benedictine monk Rufinus Widl is based on and rework the love story of Apollo and Giacinto, told in Le Metamorfosi by Ovidio (30/162-219). On 13 May 1767, it was staged during the intermissions of the tragedy Clementia Croesi by Wild; the singers at the first performance were boys from a Salzburg preparatory school, which accounts for the use of Latin in the sung text. Despite its small scale and the non-professional status of its young original performers, it shows how soon the budding composer had absorbed the latest techniques of 18th-century opera.
La Fenice new production
with Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia
The performance lasts about 1 hour and 20 minutes
