MITRIDATE, RE DI PONTO

MUSIC BY WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
LIBRETTO BY VITTORIO AMADEO CIGNA-SANTI, FROM RACINE
As fraternal rivalry ignites, the music unleashes all its splendid virtuosity. Mitridate, re di Ponto, Mozart's first opera seria, already bears the stamp of the genius that would manifest so prodigiously in his later works. Composed in 1770 to an Italian libretto inspired by Racine's eponymous play, the work depicts a dynastic drama in which two rival brothers and their domineering father vie for power and the hand of the same princess. All the while, Roman forces are preparing to storm the region today known as Crimea. The characters – their ambitions, their contradictions, their passions – are portrayed with an unsettling truth, especially given that the composer was only 14 years old.
Staging Eric Gobin
Musical direction Thibaut Lenaerts


Mitridate Stefan Sbonnik
Aspasia Gianna Cañete Gallo
Sifare Dennis Orellana
Farnace Pieter De Praetere
Ismene Dorine Mortelmans
Arbate Sonia Sheridan Jacquelin
Marzio Mathis Van Cleynenbreugel
​Actors Sina Noushmehr, Hamza Zairaf


With the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie


Pianists Lionel Bams, Noemi Biro, Arnaud Dos Santos
Staging assistant Charlie Cattrall
Language coach Italian Primo Lunghi
​Dramaturge Keith Tillotson
Set Frédéric Philippe
Costumes Eric Gobin
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Sung in Italian with surtitles in Dutch and French
Introductions in Dutch or French one hour before curtain up
Duration 3 hours with intermission
A word from the stage director
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It was my passion for French Classical tragedy (discovered at the age of 15 in a drama class at the Conservatory of Namur) that led me to take an interest in Mozart's opera Mitridate. Although librettist Cigna-Santi's Italian adaptation departs somewhat from Racine's model, it retains all the complexity of the characters, the density of the conflicts and the modernity of the political stakes. Guiding young performers through this still very codified form of opera seria, enabling them to embody these very human characters in all their contradictions, is a challenge I relish. I am also delighted to be working with a countertenor and a sopranist [male soprano] in the roles of the rival brothers. To my knowledge, this has never been done before, which lends an extra touch of originality and dramatic verisimilitude to our production. The final lines of the opera, sung by Mitridate's family around his corpse, suffice to convince me of the topicality and timelessness of the subject : 'Respond with war, never with peace, to the haughty genius who aspires to rob the world of its freedom.’ The invasion of an independent state by an authoritarian neighbour, the life-and-death struggle of one bloc against the other, flesh-and-blood individuals torn between love and duty, between political survival and passionate impulses – this first opera seria by the young Mozart sets to music themes that could hardly be more current.
Eric Gobin
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