Bastien und Bastienne is an early opera by Mozart, written when the composer was twelve years old. The 45-minute, three-character opera’s deceptive simplicity is not, however, a product of the composer’s youth. In fact, Mozart had already composed two earlier operas at the age of eleven – Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots [1]and Apollo et Hyacinthus – which sport longer and more elaborate da capo arias, the likes of which formed the basis of so much opera of the early-to-mid-18th century. After those two operas, the sudden move to the pastoral simplicity of Bastien und Bastienne seems almost modern, perhaps showing the influence of Gluck [2], whose reforms would continue to influence Mozart throughout his operatic career. Even in this early work, you can hear the beginnings of Entführung and Zauberflöte.

Most of the arias in Bastien und Bastienne are quite short, some barely more than fragments of melody that punctuate scenes of dialogue. The transition between speaking and singing is one of the most challenging moments to negotiate in any work of musical theater, but Bastien und Bastienne seems to revel in the constant whiplash, the jumps from one level of communication to another, and the abrupt changes in attitude. They are humorous, of course, but they also, in their way, allow the characters to feel more real than their usual prototypes in the genre.

Bastien und Bastienne is almost a beat-for-beat parody of the 1752 opera Le devin du village, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau [3], which tells the story of Colin and Colette, who are helped out of their lovers’ spat by the village soothsayer. Unlike Mozart’s parody, Rousseau’s opera is remarkably staid. While Mozart’s sorcerer is given a boisterous entrance, accompanying himself on the bagpipes, and crafts an image for himself that you’re never quite sure if he wants you to take him seriously; Rousseau’s soothsayer is stern and serious throughout. While Bastien and Bastienne can flit through sorrow, lightness, anger, and aloofness, sometimes all in the same aria, Colin and Colette’s emotions seldom rise above a vague pastoral mopiness.

That Mozart gives the characters more range of emotion to play, makes them feel like more fully realized people than the earnest representations of the pastoral archetypes in Rousseau’s model. That Colas is in on the joke, and invites the audience to laugh at the inherent silliness of the premise, also lets the audience feel that they can sympathise with the characters as well as be amused by them. Colas pokes gentle fun at Bastien and Bastienne’s big feelings, but, crucially, is never mean-spirited toward them. The resultant effect is one of pleasant fun and good humor, but with a core real sympathy running through it.

Le 66 is another early opera, Offenbach’s 22nd – okay, “early” relative only to the fact that he wrote about a hundred of them in total. Premiering in 1856, it was the fourteenth operetta Offenbach composed for the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, which he had founded in 1855 – the man worked fast! Offenbach received a license for the production of one-act comedies, with the condition that they must have fewer than five characters. In 1858, the licensing laws were changed, enabling Offenbach to at last produce large-scale, full-length operettas, which he did, beginning with the massively successful Orphée aux enfers. It is from the subsequent period that the composer’s most enduringly popular operas date, including La belle Hélène (1864), La vie parisienne (1866), and La Grande-duchesse de Gérolstein (1867).

By the time Offenbach had premiered a baker’s dozen one-acts in his new theater in a little over a year, he had solidly established a “house style.” Offenbach was uninterested in the increasingly serious and elaborate plots that had come to dominate the genre of opéra comique [4]. Many creators of comic opera, including Mozart and Rossini before Offenbach, and Gilbert and Sullivan after, have sought to elevate the form by building their comedies around plots with serious themes, and characters with depth and nuance. Offenbach felt that this state of things had gone too far, and wanted to write uncomplicated, uncritical, unadulterated [5] fun.

This, I’m sure to the immense surprise of all involved, turned out to be a big hit with audiences.

The two operas we’ve selected to perform this evening are stylistically quite different, but share a number of common elements. Both operas deal with characters at a nexus between rural and urban life. The tenor is tempted away from his rustic roots by the promise of riches in the city. The soprano holds fast to her pastoral ideal. The bass is an outsider, with a foot in both worlds, who facilitates the plot, and teaches a lesson. Both works present essentially the same scenario, but treat it quite differently. Bastien und Bastienne is concerned with atmosphere and character, while Le 66 is more plot and humor-driven. It also tickled me that Bastien und Bastienne is a German singspiel in which the characters are apparently French, while Le 66 is a French operette, in which the characters are Austrian, and frequently drop German expressions into their conversation. I hope that the symmetries of these two works, accented by their differences, will make for an interesting and coherent evening of opera.

It is unknown if Bastien und Bastienne was ever performed in Mozart’s lifetime. Its first historically verified performance was in 1890. Le 66, like many of Offenbach’s one-acts, was popular at the time, but became overshadowed by his later full-length works. Which is something of a shame, because this catalogue of one-act, small-cast, light operas, is a valuable resource for a small opera company. An evening of one-acts is malleable to the needs and the strengths of the company, based on the singers available, the length of the evening desired to fill, and the artistic inclinations of the group.