Dramma giocoso in three acts
Libretto by Giovanni Petrosellini
Over three acts, seven lovers are subjected to all the highs and lows of their passions until, by the end, three couples have got together and one character is left on the shelf … The romantic entanglements in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera (The Pretend Garden-Girl) centre on Marchioness Violante Onesti, who wishes to win back her former lover and, to this end, has disguised herself as a gardener called Sandrina. But in no time at all her feelings are as rampant and uncontrollable as the plants in her employer's garden. Who is play-acting, and who really means it? No wonder all the protagonists end up thinking that they are going mad! Masked revels and wild abandon were also the real-life occasion that prompted the composition because Mozart wrote La finta giardiniera in 1775 for the Munich Carnival. This work marks the first time that the composer, 18 years old at the time, deals with a subject that was to be a constant preoccupation in his further career: Even the most passionate declarations of fidelity and the most sincere marriage vows are powerless in the face of mighty Eros. Mozart masterfully interweaves tragic and burlesque scenes and, with this opera, writes his first instructive “school for lovers”.
In Italian with German and English surtitles
Introduction to the work 30 minutes before curtain-up
