Johann Simon Mayr: Elena

During the 1813-14 carnival season in Naples, Simon Mayr wrote a much-admired opera semiseria called Elena. The post-revolutionary Napoleonic era saw great enthusiasm for the rescue opera genre and Elena is a perfect example, in which a complex plot, based on French models, sees an innocent falsely accused of a capital offence. Mayr's subtle accommodation of Neapolitan opera and Viennese Classicism ensures a series of choruses and recitatives that drive the action

forward, punctuated with arias, romances, ensembles, lyric richness and moments of witty buffo colour.

Johann Simon MAYR (1763-1845)

Elena

Libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola

Sung in Italian

Julia Sophie Wagner, Mira Graczyk and Anna Feith, Sopranos

Anna-Doris Capitelli, Mezzo-soprano

Markus Schäfer, Fang Zhi and Harald Thum, Tenors

Daniel Ochoa, Niklas Mallmann and Andreas Mattersberger, Basses

Simon Mayr Chorus o Concerto de Bassus

Franz Hauk