The opera didn't even have a title until 1866, when the publisher Johann Anton André named it Zaide and completed it for its premiere.
Recording & Production
The Orchestra of Classical Opera performs on period instruments tuned to A = 430 Hz for this recording.
Interpretation
For this recording, conductor Ian Page chose an entr'acte from Mozart's incidental music to Thamos, König in Ägypten, K.345, to serve as the overture for Zaide.
Composition History
Zaide is one of the few works by Mozart not written in direct response to a commission or performance opportunity.
Compositional Technique
Zaide is Mozart's only surviving work to employ melodrama, a technique where spoken text is dramatically punctuated by free-flowing orchestral accompaniment.
Composer Biography
Mozart began Zaide at age 23, already more than halfway through his career, during a particularly emotional period marked by professional rejections and the death of his mother.
Composition History
Mozart never completed his opera Zaide, and the spoken dialogue for the work does not survive.
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