The one-act singspiel Bastien und Bastienne is a charming creation of child-prodigy written by him when he was just 12 years old. In 1768 the wunderkind was living in Vienna and attended the premiere of Jean-Jacque Rousseau’s comic opera Devin du village (Village Sorcerer), which enjoyed great popularity in high society. The secret of its attraction was in a new philosophy, singing a simple life in the country and abandoning the cult of cold reason in favour of feelings.
Rousseau’s characters served as an inspirational example: the most refined aristocrats tried to live according to the motto “Back to nature!” The pastoral fashion spread not only to clothes, but also over to other spheres of life: noblewomen kept sheep and lambs as pets, set up dairy farms, where they personally milked cows, laid out gardens, grew fruit and vegetables and then proudly treated each other to the products of their labour.
It remains unclear whether the little Mozart perceived the ideas of Rousseau’s “golden age”, – most likely, he just loved the merry fairy-tale about two lovers and the ingenious rogue sorcerer who helped them. The music of Bastien und Bastienne is based on the realistic genre, there is a lot of folksy humour, but, at the same time, it is marked by Mozart’s elegance. At the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre the opera is staged by the creative tandem – director Daria Panteleeva and stage-designer Pyotr Okunev. There is no doubt that the Primorsky audience will immediately love the kind and cheerful performance filled with pastoral Rococo idyll.
Nadezhda Koulygina
