Wolfgang A. Mozart Betulia liberata
Azione sacra in two parts KV 118 (74c)
New production
In Italian with German and English surtitles
Coproduction with Ravenna Festival
Print programme (PDF)
Riccardo Muti, Conductor
Marco Gandini, Stage director
Italo Grassi, Set design
Gabriella Pescucci, Costum design
Marco Filibeck, Lighting
Walter Zeh, Chorus Master
Shortly after his first journey to Italy, Mozart wrote the music for Betulia liberata, setting a popular libretto by Pietro Metastasio. The Viennese court poet followed the Biblical original rather closely: during the siege of her hometown Bethulia by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, under the command of Holofernes, the widow Judith enters the enemy camp, wins Holofernes’ trust and beheads the sleeping commander. The attackers flee in confusion.