Thursday February 8
20:15 - ca. 22:00
Oudshoornse kerk
Oudshoornseweg 90
Alphen aan den Rijn

With Lorenzo Coppola - clarinet

Together with Lorenzo Coppola, PENTA reveals unexpected connections between the theater in Mozart's operas and his chamber music. Coppola, like no one else, has the ability to recognize the Commedia dell'Arte in Mozart's music, especially his chamber music. He is the Commedia dell'Arte himself: Arlecchino, Isabella, and Pantalone all at once. Every phrase in which Mozart quotes himself in chamber music is recognized by Coppola as an aria from an opera because he knows them all by heart. All stylistic figures, gestures, musical phrases, and sometimes even individual notes take on meaning within the story. Words are unnecessary to tell the story of the Commedia. Coppola speaks and sings with his clarinet like a true diva.

Between 1786 and 1790, Mozart created some of his most important operas: Le nozze di Figaro (May 1786), Don Giovanni (October 1787), and Così fan tutte (January 1790). But that was far from all he did. Meanwhile, he steadily composed a string quartet, piano quartets, piano trios, songs, a symphony, two concertos, and so on. In the spring of 1787, he completed his string quintet in C minor, and in December 1789, his clarinet quintet was first performed. "Nulla dies sine linea" was his motto: no day without putting a line on paper. This composing flow across different genres inspired us to explore the operatic influences in Mozart's late chamber music. Mozart's quintets are saturated with theatrical expressions of loyalty, love, deception, revenge, and forgiveness, as frequently sung in his operas.

With this program, Penta and Lorenzo Coppola break down the barrier between the theater and the living room. Chamber music as opera. Opera as chamber music.
Mozart at his peak, where the small work doesn't pale in comparison to the grand.

Program
Selections from:
- W.A. Mozart - String Quintet in C major, KV 515
- W.A. Mozart - Clarinet Quintet in A major, KV 581
- W.A. Mozart - Arias from ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’, ‘Die Entführung aus dem Serail’, ‘Die Zauberflöte’, and ‘La Clemenza di Tito’, arranged for clarinet and string quintet
- J. Haydn - Baritone Trios, op. 35 and op. 113