Signum Classics: Mozart — Il Sogno di Scipione, K.126 (Classical Opera, Ian Page) — 2 CD Set

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Product Details:

• UPC: 635212049921
• Catalog Number: SIGCD499
• Label Code: LC15723
• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: Signum Classics (Signum Records)
• Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Work: Il Sogno di Scipione, K.126
• Conductor: Ian Page
• Ensemble: The Choir and Orchestra of Classical Opera
• Release Year: 2017
• Genre: Classical
• Style: Opera (azione teatrale)

Product Features

• Format: CD
• Discs: 2
• Total playing time: 108′14
• Recording: 24-bit digital (DDD)
• Made in: United Kingdom
• Booklet notes in English (French, German & Italian translations available from the label)
• Condition: Brand new, factory sealed

Overview

Mozart wrote Il Sogno di Scipione when he was around fifteen — a one-act dramatic serenata built on a Roman general's dream, in which he's asked to choose between the goddesses Fortune and Constancy. It's early Mozart, but the vocal writing already has the agility and brightness that would define him.

This 2017 set is part of Classical Opera's acclaimed Mozart cycle under Ian Page, recorded with the period-aware care that made the series a critical favorite. The cast is strong across the board — Stuart Jackson in the title role, with Klara Ek and Soraya Mafi as the two competing goddesses, and Chiara Skerath delivering the closing "Licenza."

Two discs, just over 108 minutes, with the Choir and Orchestra of Classical Opera. A clean, modern recording of a work that doesn't turn up on disc often, presented with the seriousness Mozart's early stage music rarely gets.

Interesting Facts

• Mozart composed Il Sogno di Scipione in 1771–72, likely intended to honor the Archbishop of Salzburg; the libretto by Metastasio had already been set by other composers decades earlier.
• The work is based on "Somnium Scipionis," a passage from Cicero's De re publica describing the dream of the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus.
• Ian Page founded Classical Opera (later The Mozartists) in 1997 and launched an ambitious project to record and perform Mozart's works in chronological order.
• The recording was made in association with Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel, the publisher behind the scholarly New Mozart Edition.
• The final "Licenza" was a conventional homage section appended to such court works, addressed to the dedicatee.

Track Listing

Disc 1 & Disc 2: Il Sogno di Scipione, K.126 — complete (overture, recitatives, arias, and final coro). Total playing time across both discs: 108′14.

Roles: Scipione — Stuart Jackson (tenor) · Costanza — Klara Ek (soprano) · Fortuna — Soraya Mafi (soprano) · Publio — Krystian Adam (tenor) · Emilio — Robert Murray (tenor) · Licenza — Chiara Skerath (soprano).

Publishers

Released by Signum Classics / Signum Records (Perivale, United Kingdom) in 2017, catalog number SIGCD499. Recorded by Classical Opera; sponsored by George & Efthalia Koukis as part of the Classical Opera Mozart Cycle in association with Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel.

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