W.A.Mozart: Mitridate - About this recording

“They’ve done it again! Mitridate has come to stay … A luxurious bouquet of singers … a first-class Mozart orchestra with bite, tenderness and mobility … Unique pearls on a string”

The critics were unanimous after the Danish Radio Sinfonietta concert performance of Mitridate, Rè di Ponto in 2002. Now Mitridate is available on CD in the new super audio CD format.

SACD is the latest format; it plays surround sound and is highly addictive: the aural image is far more realistic than the old-fashioned stereo format because it reproduces the whole recording venue and the individual parts are crystal clear. You can play SACDs on your normal stereo and the sound will still be better than that of traditional CDs.

Mozart’s operatic breakthrough

Mitridate, Rè di Ponto is not over-represented in the recording catalogue, so there is something for everyone in this recording. Mozart wrote the opera when he was only 14 years old for the opera in Milan. It proved to be his Italian breakthrough; he showed that he mastered the classical opera style, opera seria, with an abundance of arias, all different and all requiring incredible virtuosity. A tenor aria with seven top Cs, dazzling coloratura areas and superb explosions of emotion testify to the high standards Mozart was writing for, and which this new recording succeeds in recreating.

The soloists are predominantly from Scandinavia, with our very own Henriette Bonde-Hansen in splendid form as Aspasia, the dazzling leading role. From Sweden we have Lisa Larsson, Kristina Hammarström, Mathias Zachariassen and Anders J. Dahlin, and our DR Artist in Residence 2004, soprano Sine Bundgaard, also from Denmark. The Ukrainian soprano Maria Fontosh completes the cast in the major role of Sifare, the young prince.

The recording is a 3 CD set with an extensive booklet containing articles by Claus Johansen, Johannes Fjord Jensen, Richard Lewis, and the libretto in Italian, English, German and French,