Betulia liberata


La Betulia liberata is the title of a libretto by Pietro Metastasio which was originally commissioned by Emperor Charles VI and set by Georg Reutter the younger in 1734. It was subsequently set by as many as 30 composers, including Niccolò Jommelli, Ignaz Holzbauer, Florian Leopold Gassmann, Leopold Kozeluch, Joseph Schuster, and most famously Mozart.
The Mozart is the best known, if only because the composer's output receives more examination. Composed in March to July 1771 when Mozart was 15 years old, K. 118 is a 140-minute "azione sacra" on a text by Metastasio tracing the story of Judith and Holofernes from the biblical . It was commissioned in March 1771 by Giuseppe Ximenes, Prince of Aragon, while Mozart and his father Leopold were on the way home to Salzburg from their first journey to Italy. It is the only oratorio Mozart ever wrote. Its two parts comprise sixteen arias, with solo or choral parts, scored for soloists, choir and orchestra. Not performed in Mozart's lifetime, La Betulia liberata is shaped stylistically to works by Leonardo Leo and Johann Adolph Hasse.
Recent high-profile performances of the Mozart setting include one in the 2006 Salzburg Festival under the baton of Christoph Poppen, as part of the M22 series, masterminded by Bernhard Fleischer to perform all Mozart's operas in 2006 Salzburg Festival. The performance was recorded and subsequently released as DVD. In 2010 both the Mozart and the Jommelli settings were performed side by side at the Salzburg Whitsun and Ravenna festivals under the leadership of Riccardo Muti.

Mozart's setting

Roles

First part
  1. Overtura
  2. Recitative: Popoli di Betulia
  3. Aria #1: D'ogni colpa la colpa maggiore
  4. Recitative: E in che sperar?
  5. Aria #2: Ma qual virtù non cede
  6. Recitative: Già le memorie antiche
  7. Aria #3: Non hai cor
  8. Recitative: E qual pace sperate
  9. Aria with chorus #4: Pietà, se irato sei
  10. Recitative: Chi è costei che qual sorgente aurora
  11. Aria #5: Del pari infeconda
  12. Recitative: Oh saggia, oh santa
  13. Aria with chorus #6: Pietà, se irato sei
  14. Recitative: Signor, Carmi a te viene
  15. Aria #7: Terribile d'aspetto
  16. Recitative: Ti consola, Achior
  17. Aria #8: Parto inerme, e non pavento
  18. Chorus #9: Oh prodigio! Oh stupor!
Second part
  1. Recitative: Troppo mal corrisponde
  2. Aria #10: Se Dio veder tu vuoi
  3. Recitative: Confuso io son
  4. Aria #11: Quel nocchier che in gran procella
  5. Recitative: Lungamente non dura
  6. Aria #12: Prigionier che fa ritorno
  7. Recitative: Giuditta, Ozia, popoli, amici
  8. Aria #13: Te solo adoro
  9. Recitative: Di tua vittoria
  10. Aria #14: Con troppa rea viltà
  11. Recitative: Quanta cura hai di noi
  12. Aria #15: Quei moti che senti
  13. Recitative: Seguansi, o Carmi
  14. Aria with chorus #16: Lodi al gran Dio

    Recordings

in 1820 revised Florian Leopold Gassmann's La Betulia liberata by shortening some recitatives and arias, and adding additional choirs taken from Gassmann's other compositions.
As a student of Antonio Salieri, Franz Schubert set "Te solo adoro", Anchior's aria from the second part, as a composition exercise for four voices in November 1812. The exercise was first published in 1940, and having received 34 as number in the Deutsch catalogue, again in the New Schubert Edition in 1986.