Mozart's 'Mitridate' Finally Reaches Naples, 256 Years Late

Teatro San Carlo has finally staged Mozart's "Mitridate, Re di Ponto" — 256 years after the fourteen-year-old composer declined the Naples house's commission in 1770, opting instead for Milan's Teatro Ducale. Claus Guth's new production, presented in the San Carlo's 2026–27 season with an international cast, marks the opera's house debut.

The libretto by Amedeo Cigna-Santi, built on a strict Metastasian framework of dry recitatives and da capo arias, dramatizes a fictionalized chapter in the life of Mithridates VI of Pontus. Mitridate plans to wed the Greek princess Aspasia and to marry his son Farnace to the Parthian princess Ismene. His youngest and favorite son, Sifare, falls for Aspasia, and she returns his love. When Mitridate is reported dead in battle, Farnace tries to seize the throne and force Aspasia to marry him; Mitridate then returns, enraged and bent on revenge.

Guth updates the setting to the 20th century — likely the 1970s, judging by Ursula Kudrna's colorful costumes — recasting Mitridate as the wealthy patriarch of an elegant mansion. The reviewer found the rationale for the shift vague: it adds little to the drama and removes the theme of war without substituting a corporate equivalent. The dysfunctional family dynamics, however, adapt easily to any era and came across sharply.

Christian Schmidt's sets used a revolving stage. One side held the mansion, with its sprawling living room, a view of the upper floor, and a study where the main action unfolded. The other offered a large abstract space with a curved backdrop, where characters confronted their fears and nightmares alongside identically dressed "doubles" and figures covered entirely in black. This psychoanalytic environment gave the evening a striking, dreamlike intensity.

Riccardo Frizza conducted a measured, classically poised reading without hyperbole, drawing lush colors from the Teatro San Carlo orchestra. Fast tempi revealed the ensemble's precision and elegance; slower numbers occasionally lacked dramatic tension. Most of the recitatives were cut — a damaging choice here, since the plot confuses even when intact, and the cuts left Sifare and Aspasia's nascent love unmapped.

Giovanni Sala sang the title role with a luminous tenor balancing lightness and heroic weight. A few of the seven top Cs in the final aria "Vado incontro al fato estremo" lacked focus, but his Mitridate landed as an effectively brutal bully. Sara Blanch's Aspasia dazzled with florid coloratura and sparkling top notes; her confident ornamentation compensated for a slightly weaker middle register.

Mariangela Sicilia, singing Sifare en travesti, excelled musically despite Guth's major misstep of costume — an oversized gray suit, knitted vest, thick-rimmed glasses and a five o'clock shadow that turned a heroic prince into a drab bureaucrat. Her aria "Lungi da te, mio bene" was an evening high point, beautifully matched by principal horn Alessandro Fraticelli's on-stage obbligato.

Franco Fagioli brought sprezzatura to Farnace, dispatching the score's most pyrotechnic arias with razor-sharp coloratura, though his countertenor showed signs of wear and his high notes were drier than in past years. His final aria of repentance, "Già dagli occhi il velo è tolto," proved heart-rending. Giuliana Gianfaldoni lent Ismene a creamy, supple tone; Alasdair Kent (Marzio) and Agustín Pennino (Arbate) completed a successful evening.

With this belated premiere, the San Carlo has closed a commissioning gap older than the house's most storied traditions — and given Guth's staging a starry cast to anchor it in the repertoire.