Bas­tien und Bas­tienne
Sing­spiel in one act K. 50 resp. 46b (1768)
Lib­retto: Friedrich Wil­helm Weiskern, Jo­hann H. F. Müller and Jo­hann An­dreas Schacht­ner

Der Schaus­piel­direk­t­or
Com­edy with mu­sic in one act K. 486 (1786)
Lib­retto: Jo­hann Got­tlieb Stephanie d.J.

En­trust­ing the two op­er­as to the world-fam­ous Salzburg Ma­ri­on­ette Theatre for the Moz­art 22 cycle was per­fectly nat­ur­al, es­pe­cially since "Bas­tien und Bas­tienne" was the very first work staged by this theatre at its in­aug­ur­al per­form­ance in 1913. Nev­er­the­less, Thomas Reich­ert, re­spons­ible for the stage dir­ec­tion, sets and cos­tumes, hit upon a truly bril­liant idea: in­stead of per­form­ing one piece after the oth­er, he com­bined "Bas­tien und Bas­tienne" and "Der Schaus­piel­direk­t­or" in a way that cap­tures the world of the Sing­spiel in Moz­art’s day.

Here the im­pres­sar­io is still hold­ing au­di­tions, but now he’s cast­ing the Sing­spiel "Bas­tien und Bas­tienne". Find­ing a Bas­tien is easy, but two po­ten­tial Bas­tiennes sing their arias so well that the im­pres­ario can’t de­cide. He makes a run-through of "Bas­tien und Bas­tienne", after which the wo­men con­tin­ue to ar­gue about who should get the role. The clev­er im­pres­sar­io hopes to squirm his way out by hir­ing both, one as the A-cast and one as the B-cast. But this only pro­vokes a new quar­rel about who will sing at the premiere...

Al­fred Klein­herz, Frank
Radu Co­jocariu, Buff / Colas
Bernhard Ber­chtold, Mon­sieur Vo­gels­ang / Bas­tien
Ev­mor­fia Metaxaki, Mlle Sil­berklang / Bas­tienne 1
Aleksandra Zamojska, Mme Herz / Bas­tienne 2

Junge Phil­har­monie Salzburg

Mi­chael Hof­stet­ter, con­duct­or
Joachim Schlömer, stage dir­ect­or
Stefan Aglas­sing­er, video dir­ect­or

Re­cord­ing dates: 30.07.| 04.08.| 06.08.2006
Ven­ue: Salzburg Ma­ri­on­ette Theatre