Soprano Marie-Eve Munger to Release MAESTRINO MOZART - Rare Arias Composed Between Ages 10-16 – On ATMA Classique

For her second collaboration on the ATMA Classique label, soprano Marie-Eve Munger releases Maestrino Mozart, an album devoted to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's rarely-heard arias composed between the ages of 10-16. Maestrino Mozart, out September 16, 2022, features Munger alongside Les Boréades de Montréal and conductor Philippe Bourque in a program curated to contradict any assumption that Mozart's earliest works are merely simple or juvenile through sparkling performances of dramatic and emotionally powerful works such as Mitridate and Lucio Silla.

Mozart's father, Leopold, presented Wolfgang in concert at the courts of Munich and Vienna at the age of six. Described as a joyful and charming child, for whom performing was fun, Wolfgang immediately embarked on a tour of Europe that ended up lasting three and a half years. The earliest work on this album - the touching aria "Per quel paterno amplesso," K. 79 - was likely composed on this tour, when he was only 10 years old.

Munger says, "My own journey into this repertoire began at the start of my career, when I was lucky enough to be offered a role in Il sogno di Scipione in New York. I had thought I knew the composer a little, but quickly realized my ignorance when I learned that Mozart had written no fewer than eight dramatic works before he reached the age of 17! My curiosity was piqued. During the last few years, I have collected what I thought to be his most exceptional arias and recitatives for soprano, written between the ages of 10 and 16. I hope to take the audience on a musical journey to try to gain some insight into the development of this incomparable phenomenon."

Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots, K. 35, (The Duty of the First Commandment) was Mozart's first musical contribution to the Salzburg court and his first attempt at writing a substantial dramatic work, written when he was only 11. In "Ein ergrimmter Löwe brüllet" (An enraged lion roars), he displays a great capacity for effective musical description. In order to extinguish gossip in Vienna, claiming that Leopold was writing in his son's name, his father persuaded the emperor to commission Wolfgang's first opera, La finta semplice, K. 51, at age 12, in which the playful "Colla bocca" and heartfelt "Amoretti che ascosi" offer a young baroness's developing experience of love. While that opera's premiere was delayed due to conspiracies and smallpox outbreaks, Mozart was commissioned to write the Singspiel Bastien und Bastienne K. 50, based on Rousseau's Le devin du village, capturing the rustic essence of the libretto and, in "Mein liebster Freund," a touching simplicity, full of pathos.

Now a composer in his own right, at the age of 14, Mozart traveled to Milan where he wrote Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87 (1770) in close collaboration with the singers, who were delighted with virtuoso arias that express a range of extreme dramatic conflicts and demonstrate surprisingly profound psychological insight for a composer so young. The opera was such a success that on opening night, the audience acclaimed, "Evviva il maestro! Evviva il maestrino!"

Following the success of his trip to Italy, commissions flowed in and he soon returned for Ascanio in Alba, K. 111. Planned for the wedding of Archduke Ferdinand, it was intended to act only as a divertissement between the acts of an opera seria by Hasse, but reports claim that 15-year-old Mozart's sparkling inventiveness received all of the applause.

Back in Salzburg, Wolfgang was commissioned to write a one-act serenade for the coronation of the new archbishop. Il sogno di Scipione, K. 126 features long and virtuosic arias, as well as new ways of using the orchestra - fueled, perhaps, by the eight symphonies Mozart was writing that year.

Wolfgang returned quickly for his second commission in Milan. Munger says, "Even if Mitridate was the bigger success, it is still, in my opinion, in writing Lucio Silla, K. 135 that Mozart finally came of age as a musical dramatist. He breaks the codes, he no longer confines himself to da capo arias, he increases the richness of his orchestrations, and we hear the wave of tense Sturm und Drang approaching. The work may not be completely balanced, due to circumstances beyond his control, but it offers a real window on operatic reform in action. Wolfgang may only have been 16 years old, but he was already a pioneer."

About Marie-Eve Munger

Born in Saguenay, Québec, Canadian coloratura soprano Marie-Eve Munger enjoys a flourishing career in both North America and Europe. She has earned a global reputation for her "warm, lyrical" (The Associated Press) voice "with glassy-clear coloratura" (The New York Times) as well as her strong stage presence, about which The Washington Post raves, "she stole the show."

Recent successes include her debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago in Massenet's Cendrillon; Teatro alla Scala, Barcelona's Liceu, and Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in Patrice Chéreau's production of Elektra; La Monnaie with the world premiere of Pinocchio; Opéra de Marseille in My Fair Lady; Opéra de Montréal in Roméo et Juliette; Munich's Bayerischer Rundfunk in Lakmé and l'Enfant et les Sortilèges; Opéra de Lausanne for Ariadne auf Naxos and My Fair Lady; Chicago Symphony Orchestra in L'Enfant et les Sortilèges; and Paris Opéra Comique in Le Pré aux Clercs, Fantasio, and Bohème. She worked with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kent Nagano, Sir Andrew Davis, Symeon Bychkov, Paul Daniels, and Paul McCreesh among others.

This season, she sings Handel's Theodora with Trinity Wall Street in New York City and at Caramoor Center for the Arts, the Queen of the Night in Magic Flute with Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg and Mulhouse, the title role in Domino Noir with Opéra de Lausanne, and the Fairy Godmother in Cendrillon with Opéra de Limoges. Recently, she was Tytania in Midsummer Night's Dream at Opéra de Lille in a new production by Laurent Pelly, the Nightingale in Die Vögel by Walter Braunfels at the Opéra National du Rhin, Ophélie in Hamlet for Angers-Nantes Opéra and Opéra de Rennes, the Countess Adèle in Rossini's Le Comte Ory and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni for Opéra de Toulon, along with several solo concerts and recitals.

At home with contemporary music, she created roles at La Monnaie, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Théâtre du Châtelet, Montréal Symphony, and Strasbourg Musica Festival with composers such as Régis Campo, Philippe Boesmans, Mauro Lanza, Frédéric Verrières and Gérard Pesson.

Marie-Eve Munger earned her master's degree from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. She won first prize at the Marmande International Voice Competition in 2007 and won the Choquette-Symcox award from the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada in 2012.

When not on stage, down-to-earth and outdoorsy Munger (@dungareediva on social media) is an avid gardener, budding sailor, amateur cook and mother to a wonderful boy. Learn more at www.marieevemunger.com.

Maestrino Mozart Tracklist

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Il Sogno di Scipione, K. 126 (1772; 16 years old)
1. Aria "Biancheggia in mar lo scoglio" (Costanza) [7:34]

La finta semplice, K. 51 (1769; 13 years old)
2. Aria "Amoretti che ascosi" (Rosina, Act II) [4:57]

Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots, K. 35 (1767; 11 years old)
3. Aria "Ein ergrimmter Löwe brüllet" (Divine Mercy) [6:30]

Bastien und Bastienne, K. 50 (1768 ; 12 years old)
4. Aria "Mein liebster Freund hat mich verlassen" (Bastienne) [2:31]

La finta semplice, K. 51 (1769; 13 years old)
5. Aria "Colla bocca, e non col core" (Rosina, Act I) [2:51]

6. Recitativo "O temerario Arbace" - Aria "Per quel paterno amplesso", K. 79 (1766?; 10 years old) [6:26]

Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87 (1770; 14 years old)
7. Aria "Al destin che la minaccia" (Aspasia, Act I) [6:47]
8. Aria "Nel grave tormento" (Aspasia, Act II) [4:46]
9. Recitativo "Ah ben ne fui presaga" - Aria "Pallid'ombre" (Aspasia, Act II) [6:55]

Ascanio in Alba, K. 111 (1771; 15 years old)
10. Aria "Dal tuo gentil sembiante" (Fauno, Act II) [5:22]

Lucio Silla, K. 135 (1772; 16 years old)
11. Aria "Fra i pensier più funesti di morte" (Giunia, Act III) [3:18]
12. Recitativo "In un istante" - Aria "Parto, m'affretto" (Giunia, Act II) [6:51]

Total Time: 01:04:48

Marie-Eve Munger, soprano
Les Boréades de Montréal
Philippe Bourque, conductor

ACD2 2815
ATMA Classique

This recording was made with the help of the Canadian Council for the Arts.

To post a comment, you must register and login.