Il rè pastore, K.208
Opera
Il re pastore (The Shepherd King) is an opera, K. 208, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Pietro Metastasio, edited by Giambattista Varesco. It is an opera seria within the pastoral genre. The opera was first performed on 23 April 1775 in Salzburg in the Rittersaal (knight's hall) of the Residenz-Theater in the palace of the Archbishop Count Hieronymus von Colloredo.
In 1775 the opera was commissioned for a visit by the Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria, the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa, to Salzburg. Mozart spent six weeks working on the opera. It consists of two acts and runs for approximately 107 minutes.
Metastasio wrote the libretto in 1751, basing it on a work by Torquato Tasso called Aminta. The libretto was picked up when Mozart (just 19 at the time) and his father saw a performance of it set to music composed by Felice Giardini – Mozart's version, however was two acts rather than Giardini's three, and has a few substantial changes. Each act lasts for around an hour in performance. The Salzburg court chaplain Varesco was largely responsible for this editing of Metastasio's libretto.
It is often referred to not as an opera, but as a serenata, a type of dramatic cantata. The appearance of a quartet of lovers (Aminta and Elisa, Agenore and Tamiri) of somewhat dubious fidelity automatically puts a modern audience in mind of the later Così fan tutte. The principal psychological theme of the opera is, however, the demands of love against the demands of kingship, as Aminta, the shepherd-king, tussles with his conscience, and in this Il re pastore is closer in theme to Idomeneo than any other of Mozart's operas. Indeed, Idomeneo was the next completed opera that Mozart wrote after Il re pastore, after his six-year-long break from the stage. Furthermore, the theme of qualities for kingship appears in another opera, La clemenza di Tito, his last one.
Movements
- No. 1 Overtura. Allegro molto
Act I
- Scene I. No. 2 Aria "Alla selva, al prato, al fonte" (Elisa)
- Scene I. Scena "Intendo amico mio" (Aminta)
- Scene II. No. 3 Aria "Aer tranquillo e dì sereni" (Aminta)
- Scene II. Recitativo "Compagne amene" (Aminta)
- Scene II. Recitativo accompagnato "Ditelo voi pastori" (Aminta)
- Scene III. No. 4 Aria "Si spande al sole in faccia" (Alessandro)
- Scene III. Recitativo "Perdono amici Dei" (Aminta, Agenore, Alessandro)
- Scene IV. No. 5 Aria "Per me rispondete" (Agenore)
- Scene IV. Recitativo "Agenore? T'arresta" (Tamiri, Agenore)
- Scene V. No. 6 Aria "Di tante sue procelle" (Tamiri)
- Scene V. Recitativo "No: voi non siete, oh Dei" (Tamiri)
- Scene VI. Recitativo "Dove t'affretti, Elisa?" (Elisa, Aminta, Agenore)
- Scene VII. Recitativo accompagnato "Perdona Elisa" (Aminta, Elisa)
- Scene VIII. No. 7 Duetto "Vanne a regnar ben mio" (Elisa, Aminta)
Act II
- Scene I. No. 8 Aria "Barbaro, oh Dio! mi vedi divisa dal mio ben" (Elisa)
- Scene I. Recitativo "Questa del campo greco e la tenda maggior" (Elisa, Agenore)
- Scene II-III. Recitativo "La bella Elisa" (Aminta, Agenore, Alessandro)
- Scene IV. No. 9 Aria "Se vincendo vi rendo felici" (Alessandro)
- Scene IX. No. 11 Aria "Se tu di me fai dono" (Tamiri)
- Scene VI. Recitativo "Oimè! declina il sol" (Aminta)
- Scene VI. Rondeaux "L'amerò, sarò costante" (Aminta)
- Scene VII-VIII. Recitativo "Uscite, alfine uscite" (Agenore, Elisa, Tamiri)
- Scene X. Recitativo "Misero cor!" (Agenore) / No. 12 Aria "Sol può dir, come si trova" (Agenore)
- Scene XI-XIII. No. 13 Aria "Voi che fausti ognor donate" (Alessandro)
- Scene XIII. No. 14 Coro "Viva l'invitto duce" (Elisa, Tamiri, Aminta, Agenore, Alessandro)
- Scene XIII. Recitativo "Ola! che più si tarda?" (Alessandro, Tamiri, Agenore, Elisa, Aminta)