Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Zaide (CPO Audio CD 2-disc set)

Zaide KV 344
German Singspiel in two acts (fragment)

Text: Brian Michaels

Isabel Monar
Markus Schaefer
Markus Brutscher
Christian Hilz
Wiener Akademie
Martin Haselböck

Zaide is one of Mozart’s early Singspiels, an opera that is often ignored partly because it was incomplete. The opera was based on a Turkish fairytale that was popular at the time which dealt with captured Europeans and Turkish sultans, slavery, liberation and gallantry. However, his characters have been deemed one-dimensional and the conflicts immature which is probably the reason it was never finished.

The quality of music is not to be dismissed and Mozart himself believed this to be a valuable piece of work, despite the fact he didn’t finish it. This is a stirring new recording and features a stunning cast.

Martin Haselböck is a distinguished conductor but also specializes in unearthing long lost vocal/instrumental works and transcribes them for historical resurrections on period instruments with his Wiener Akademie, an ensemble that he founded himself, and performs these round the world. He has conducted many Mozart operas and in 1991 was awarded the Mozart Prize of the City of Prague.