Encountering Mozart
- by David Gordon

For more than a century, the opera arias of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have been a benchmark for singers. Every serious student of singing is destined to encounter that "rite of passage" of Mozart's vocal music. Mozart, more than any other composer, is utterly crucial to the development of a singer's talent. What is so unusual about this music, written more than 200 years ago by a talented and quirky young man in Vienna?

Mozart occupies a special place in the development of musical language in the western world, and his vocal music offers us both unique pleasures and formidable challenges.

He was a child of the Age of Enlightenment in the mid-18th Century, and informed by that artistic tradition he created music of clear and uncluttered structure, elegant and expressive in its phrasing and form. And yet, creative genius that he was, Mozart also subtly anticipated the increasing involvement of emotions which would appear in the music and art of the 19th century. Thus his own elegant 18th century creations are filled with an amazing intensity of emotional expression. It is this pioneering combination of utter technical clarity and deep emotional reality that distinguishes the Mozart vocal repertoire, and makes it indispensible for the evolution of a singer.

The architectural purity of Mozart's vocal lines is actually more a challenge than a blessing for singers! It's often said by vocalists that "Mozart gives you no place to hide." The voice is profiled, exposed, highlighted in a way incomparable with any other composer's music. That clarity of structure is the prime awareness for Mozartian singers.

To paraphrase Arthur Schnabel, "It is not the quantity of notes that matters in Mozart's music, it is the quality of the notes." As singers we must fulfill Mozart's design, and in so doing we are challenged to explore every aspect of our vocal and interpretive capabilities, while always maintaining a clear, elegant, 18th century vocal aesthetic.

The singer's quest for technical skill does not necessarily lead to artistry. But the quest for artistry always involves technique, and that is what Mozart inspires us to develop. Tonight we will explore many aspects of the singer's life and work, the myriad details of the singer's stylistic choices and technical exploration, as we encounter the glorious music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.