Ah! se il crudel periglio

THE SONGBIRD: Jeanette Scovotti was born in New York in 1936. Her international operatic career started her with debut in 1960 at the New York City Opera as Monica in "The Medium". She sang 86 performances with The Met in the 1960s (in order: Adele, Echo, Lisa in "Sonnambula," Oscar, Xenia, Pousette, Rosina, Zerlina, Papagena, Zerbinetta, Nannetta, Olympia, Lucy in "The Telephone," Fiakermilli, Adina, and Gilda). She was frequently heard at other leading opera houses in the U.S. and in Europe and appeared in several commercial recordings in the 1970s and 1980s.

THE MUSIC: Mozart composed "Lucio Silla" K.132 when he was 16 years old; it premiered in Milan in December 1772 to moderate success. The cast calls for four sopranos (one as a castrato) and two tenors. The opera seria format and plot are typical: Roman dictator Silla lusts for Giunia, who is the daughter of his arch-enemy and who in turn is married to the banished (and presumed dead) Roman senator Cecilio. Mozart composed the role of Giunia for the soprano virtuosa Anna de Amicis (1733 - 1816), who he had met in Mainz in 1763 and who impressed him immeasurably. There are a few references to her in Mozart's letters ("De Amicis sings incomparably") and his father's ("She sings and acts like an angel"). Giunia has four demanding arias of differing emotional colors, but "Ah, se il crudel periglio" is the showpiece to end all showpieces. Mozart himself referred to the aria's "horribly difficult passages" when he assigned it to his new student, Aloysia Weber. It is considered something of an operatic Mount Everest demanding uncanny coloratura flexibility and breath control. Here Scovotti sings it in English with a long cadenza to a staccato High F.

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