Mozart Opera - Lucio Silla
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Opera Seria (Drama) Lucius Sillus
Lucio Silla (Lucius Sulla), an Italian Drama Opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: plot summary, character list, and other information.
Lucio Silla is Mozart's Italian opera seria (drama opera) in three acts. Although the plot is pompous and the episodes not as convincing, it is considered to be the finest work Mozart wrote in Italy, and ranks with opera seria by the greatest masters of the time. (Mozart and His Operas, The New Grove composers Series, edited by Stanley Sadie, 2000)
- Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
- Libretto: Pietro Metastasio and Giovanni di Gamerra.
- First Performance: Milan, Teatro Regio Ducal, December 26, 1772.
- Setting: Rome and environs in the 1st century BC.
- Opera Seria (Comic Opera) in 3 acts
The main Characters in Lucio Silla
- Lucio Silla (Lucius Sulla) dictator of Rome(tenor)
- Giunia (Junia), daughter of Gaius Marius, engaged to Cecilius (soprano)
- Cecilio (Cecilius), exiled Roman senator (soprano castrato)
- Cinna his friend, a conspirator (soprano)
- Celia, sister of Sulla (soprano)
- Aufidio (Aufidius), tribune, friend of Sulla (tenor)
Basic Plot Summary of Lucio Silla
General Lucio Silla (Lucius Sulla) seized total control in Rome but unexpectedly he laid it down the year before his death. The plot is fiction and some of the characters are historical.
Act I
Rome is ruled by the dictator Lucio Silla. Cecilio, banished for plotting against Silla, learns from his friend Cinna that Silla, declaring him dead, is chasing Cecilio's fiancée, Giunia. He decides to return to Rome. Silla woos Giunia without success. She rejects the tyrant who has deposed her father and exiled her lover. Silla decides he must overcome the weakness of his feelings and tries to condemn Giunia. Celia agrees to persuade Junia to accept Sulla. On his return, Cecilio is taken for a ghost. He meets Giunia in secret and they renew their vows of love.
Act II
Cinna tells Giunia to marry Silla and then murder him, but she refuses. Aufidius tells Silla that Giunia has many supporters in Rome and that he should publicly declare his marriage proposal to Giunia in public. Cecilio enters the scene and interrupted Lucio Silla, who appears armed. Cinna restrains him and tells him not to do something foolish. Cecilio is arrested. Silla permits Celia's engagement to Cinna who is more concerned in plotting how to rescue Cecilio. Silla, struggling with his true feelings for Giunia, reminds Giunia that refusal to become his wife means death. At the Capitol, Silla publicly declares Giunia as the token of civil peace.
Act III
Cinna visits Cecilio in prison and tries to work something out for his release. Cinna agrees to marry Celia if she can persuade her brother to have a change of heart. Everybody is baffled and surprised by Lucio Silla as he decides to forgive Giunia and allow the two couples to marry, Cecilio to Giunia and Cinna to Celia. He also abdicates as a dictator. The lovers are reunited, singing freedom and love.
Other operas written by Mozart
- Die Zauberflöte
- Così fan tutte
- Don Giovanni
- Le nozze di Figaro
- La clemenza di Tito
- Der Schauspieldirektor
- Die Entführung aus dem Serail
- Idomeneo
- Il rè pastore
- La finta Giardiniera
- Il sogno di Scipione
- Ascanio in Alba
- Mitridate, rè di Ponto
- La finta semplice
- Bastien und Bastienne
Sources:
Mozart and His Operas, The New Grove composers Series, edited by Stanley Sadie (2000)
The Da Capo Opera by Nicholas Ivor Martin (1997)
