Apollo et Hyacinthus (KV 38)

[Jan-Willem]

In the summer of 1768 Leopold Mozart created a list of all of his
son's compositions. One of the items on this list he described as

Apollo und Hyacinth Eine Musik zu einer lateinischen Comoedi für die
Universitet zu Salzburg von 5 singenden Personen. Die originalen
spart hat 162 Seiten. Im 11. Jahre geschrieben 1767

This is Apollo et Hyacinthus (KV 38), a short little opera composed
by the eleven year old Wolfgang in 1767. It was written for the
University of Salzburg, where since 1617, annually, a play was given.
In 1767 the name of the play was Clementia Croesi, written by their
professor of syntaxis, Rufinus Widl. As was common practise, the play
was alternated by a musical interlude, which was Mozart's Apollo et
Hyacinthus, also written by (and based upon some parts of
Ovide's Metamorphosis) Widl. All the parts were taken by students.
It was no surprise that Mozart was commissioned to compose the
musical interlude. Mozart had just returned from the Grand Journey
and was widely celebrated throughout Europe. In the past, other
renowned Salzburg composers had contributed to this yearly festivity:
Michael Haydn, Cajetan Adlgasser and Johann Ernst Eberlin. As a six
year old Mozart had been featured in the play in 1762.

One dramatic piece alternated by a smaller, minor one: this was not
an uncommon practise in the eighteenth century. Today, we are used to
seeing one play, or one opera, and don't want to be ‘distracted’ by
some alternative form of entertainment in between the acts of the
play or opera. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, however,
people expected to be entertained throughout. There is a long
tradition of interludes, which plays a major role in the development
of what turned out to be one of the most popular operatic genres:
opera buffa. When opera seria came into life in the first half of the
seventeenth century, it didn't take long before interludes were
added. These consisted of short - one or two act - plays with music.
The subject: down to earth, carnivalesque characters and a lot of
things that were not to be seen on the ‘seria stage’. Thus opera
buffa was born and soon enough Germany created its own genre of this
kind: the Singspiel (Bastien und Bastienne (KV 50) being one of the
early examples). Pergolesi's La serva
padrona may serve as the ultimate example of how opera buffa became
an independent operatic genre. This piece became an immediate hit and
it still is regarded as one of the finest works in comical Italian
opera. During Mozart's childhood opera buffa had become an
independent genre. We all know the intrigue concerning his La finta
semplice (KV 51).

The story of Apollo et Hyacinthus is a simple one. Zephyrus has a
crush on Melia (daughter of Oebalus, king of Sparta). However, the
god Apollo wants to marry her. The jealous Zephyrus - in secret -
kills Hyacinthus (son of Oebalus) and accuses Apollo of the murder.
Apollo orders the wind to take away Zephyrus. But the mortally
wounded Hyacinthus reveals the truth: it was Zephyrus who did it, not
Apollo. Apollo comforts the family and changes Hyacinthus into a
flower (yes, a hyacinth!). Eventually, Apollo, Oebalus and Melia make
peace and there it is.. The happy end.

In contrast to Bastien und Bastienne, which is a pretty accessible piece, short arias and a nice pastoral story about love, Apollo et
Hyacinthus is a much more ‘difficult’ work, for it has long,
elaborate Italian arias and lots of recitative. In fact, it is set in
the opera seria tradition. True enough, but with regard to the music
itself, this is an astonishing achievement for an 11-year old.
Let us take aria #1 as an example. It's lengthy and there is hardly
any relationship between music and drama. But should we expect one?
No we should not. We should not compare Mozart's youth works to his
adult works. Not only since he was an infant in 1767 and was -
understandably - a much more learned composer in his later years, but
also since musical genres changed throughout his lifetime. It was
Mozart himself who practically invented true drama in opera; we
should not ask the young Wolfgang to be as gifted as the mature one.
One of the true elements of the old tradition of opera seria is the
so called Affektenlehre - in which elements of music have
corresponding emotional states. In opera seria, every aria is about
either love or revenge or grieve (or… etc). Mozart, even at eleven,
mastered this practise. Listen to the second aria (#3 in the score,
#1 being a chorus). This one is all about dignity. Apollo is offended
by Hyacinthus. He is a god, and what god would want to be offended by
a human being? Not a single god would! And it shows in the music.
Dignity, and some anger as well. I am not a musicologist, so I am not
going to try to analyse the music. Just listen for yourself.
The duet #6 is the one true highlight in this opera. Melia is angry
with Apollo and Apollo himself contemplates spending the rest of his
life on the earth. It's simply a wonderful adagio movement, with some
subtle pizzicato in the bass part. Mozart reused this melody in the
second movement of his symphony KV 43. The cadenza is great. Two
lines of text sung at the same time. This vocal duet is one of the
first vocal duets Mozart ever composed. In fact, it was his second
one (the first one being `Jesu, was hab ich getan', from Grabmusik
(KV 42). Also, the accompanied recitatives - there are two of them
in Apollo et Hyacinthus - were quite new to him. The earlier ones
being KV 70 (61c), 36 (33i) and 79 (73d), all written in 1765-66 (1).
The last number of this opera is a trio. Mozart's first one. He never
wrote a vocal piece for three solo voices before.

In conclusion, this little opera may not be one of young Mozart's
finest. But, as I argued above, the boy was only eleven and
considering this, it is a marvellous achievement. Bravo Wolfgang!

I have two recordings of Apollo et Hyacinthus. Leopold Hager
conducting the Mozarteum-Orchester Salzburg on Philips Complete
Mozart Edition (volume 11; box set edition) and Max Pommer conducting
the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig on Brilliant Classics.

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(1) In his catalogue of his son's works - mentioned in the first
paragraph of this article - Leopold includes fifteen Italian arias
composed in London and The Hague in 1765-66. Some of these might have contained accompanied recitatives, but since they are lost we cannot be sure of
this.

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Jan-Willem