ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756–1791):
*Thamos, König in Ägypten* K.345/336a
Anna Lucia Richter _soprano_
Gaëlle Arquez _alto_
Julian Prégardien _tenor_
Tareq Nazmi _bass_
*Collegium Vocale Gent*
Freiburger Barockorchester
Jérémie Rohrer
The choruses and instrumental interludes that Mozart wrote in the 1770s for _Thamos, König in _Ägypten_, were his only theatre music. Just like Schubert’s _Rosamunde_ and Beethoven’s music to Goethe’s _Egmont_, this is wonderful music that deserves to be better known. It prefigures _The Magic Flute_ with its orientalism and references to the Enlightenment and Freemasonry. Mozart himself wrote to his father in 1783 that the play had been a flop, and pleaded for it to be performed ‘purely for its music’. Hear hear!