The Operas of Mozart
Date: June 19,2021
Mozart’s operas vie with each other to be considered among the greatest achievements of human artistic striving: Idomeneo, The Abduction from the Seraglio, The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute.
This FREE 90 minute zoom session is a specialized workshop discussing the musical and dramatic structure of these operas. The workshop will put special emphasis on the Mozart-Da Ponte Operas of Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro and Cosi Fan Tutte.
By December 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had written the defining compositions in every available musical genre of his time: symphony, chamber music, masses, and—above all—opera. Opera was the prestige genre of the time, and Mozart loved it dearly and counted on it heavily for personal, professional, artistic, and financial reasons. Just the thought of opera, as Mozart wrote, made him “beside myself at once.”
In this workshop with Musicologist and conductor Stephen Scovasso, will explore the height of Mozart’s operatic achievement.
Stephen Scovasso is a musicologist, conductor, director and author. He has directed operas including, Carmen, Tosca, La Bohème, Don Giovanni, Gianni Schicchi, Cosi fan Tutte as well operetta's such as The Merry Widow and Die Fledermaus. He has also directed American Musical Theater pieces such as Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Bernstein’s Candide. In the dramatic theater, Stephen has directed Garcia Lorca’s La Casa del Bernarda Alba, Oscar Wilde’s Salome.
In conjunction with SAS Performing Arts Company, he has produced and directed 6 full length virtual streams including Dracula: The Radio Play, Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as many virtual concerts and holiday concerts.
Stephen studied Operatic and Symphonic conducting under the tutelage of the late Vincent La Selva. Among the works he has conducted are Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 in D minor, Handel’s Messiah, Puccini’s Tosca, and Mozart's Don Giovanni.
During his years at Arizona State University, he taught classes on the Baroque Style, Opera, American Musical Theater, and Stephen Sondheim.
Mr. Scovasso has also published a treatise on Puccini's Il Trittico and the end of Italian Opera
