MITRIDATE RE DI PONTO Berlin 2022 Minkowski Pene Pati, Ana Maria Labin, Angela Brower

The Berlin State Opera breathes new life into this paean to freedom, under the bold artistic direction of Satoshi Miyagi (with set design by Junpei Kiz and costumes by Kayo Takahashi Deschene), who transposes the story to preindustrial Japan. The result is a sparkling triumph in the spirit of kabuki theatre, spotlighting the talent of the remarkable cast including tenor Pene Pati in the title role and Ana Maria Labin as Aspasia, resplendent in this drama whose stakes transcend the bounds of history and become universal.

In the first century B.C., when the people of the Mediterranean had all fallen under the rule of the Roman Empire, one sovereign dared to resist the invasion: Mithridates, King of Pontus. Nearly two thousand years later, a prodigious 14-year-old named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart decided to stage the epic drama of Mithridates for the opera stage, inspired by Parini’s Italian translation of the play by Racine. The work’s success seemed assured, with the original Sifare, Pietro Benedetti, quipping to Leopold Mozart that he would allow himself to be castrated all over again if it failed—but that did not come to pass, as audiences immediately took to this youthful masterpiece—which resounds impeccably in the hands of Les Musiciens du Louvre under the baton of their celebrated founder, Marc Minkowski.