The Jewel Box

''The Jewel Box'' is a pasticcio opera constructed by Paul Griffiths out of various pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Its mostly English libretto by Paul Griffiths includes new translations of most of the Italian-language texts of the musical numbers. It was premiered by Opera North at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, on 19 February 1991. The conductor was Elgar Howarth, the director was Francisco Negrin and the designer was Anthony Baker.

Background

Griffiths, realising that arias composed by Mozart for insertion in other composers' operas are seldom performed nowadays, worked up what he called "a ''jeu d'esprit''" which also contained music from the composer's unfinished operas '' Lo sposo deluso'' and ''L'oca del Cairo'' and some of the arias which he had written for concert performances. This came to the attention of Nicholas Payne, General Director of Opera North, who scheduled its première for 1991, the year of the bicentenary of Mozart's death.

Performance history

After the Nottingham premiere and subsequent performances in Opera North's territory of northern England, the opera was performed in the United States by Skylight Opera Theatre (1993), Wolf Trap Opera (1994), Chicago Opera Theater (1996), and New Jersey State Opera (1996). In England, it was revived by Bampton Classical Opera in 2006 for the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, with the orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner.

The Editor of Opera magazine Rodney Milnes was enthusiastic about ''The Jewel Box''; "If anything more ingenious and original happens by way of a special event in Mozart year than Opera North's and Paul Griffiths's ''The Jewel Box'', then I'll eat my hat". He went on - "his greatest triumph has been to string his pearls together into an entirely logical musical order, 'a Mozartian key sequence,' as he wrote, 'through thirds and fifths, and simultaneously distributing the numbers helpfully among the singers". He found that the opera was "a convincing musical entity in its own right, hichrescues from the library shelf a substantial body of top-drawer Mozart written mostly for the theatre, and indeed returns it to the theatre where it belongs. It's crammed full of great music almost to the point of indigestion".Milnes, Rodney. Jewels in a setting. ''Opera'', April 1991, Vol.42 No.4, p.382-384.

Roles

Synopsis

Four characters from the commedia dell'arte ( Dottore, Pantalone, Colombina and Pedrolino) open the opera with a quartet. There is no more music, so the Dottore summons the Composer, who, with the aid of a singer of tragic music and his own father, gradually works out how the opera should go. The opera ends with an epilogue sung by the Composer.This synopsis and the following list of musical numbers are based on information in the programme for two preview performances which took place on 7 and 11 January 1991, at the Grand Theatre, Leeds.

Musical numbers

Act 1

Act 2

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jewel Box, The
English-language operas
Operas
1991 operas
Works based on operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart