Parry Jones (Tenor)
The Wireless Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, S. Kneale Kelley)
Conducted by G. Leslie Heward

Mozart was not quite nineteen when this opera, The Pretended Lady Gardener, was produced. The Elector of Bavaria had commissioned it for the Munich Carnival of 1775. It had a remarkable success, and the theatre was packed, although the more critical section of the public had doubts about it. It was pretty soon forgotten, although Mozart afterwards revised it considerably for later performances, and it is now recognized as in many ways masterly. The handling of the involved story foreshadows in a striking way the big ensembles in Figaro and Don Giovanni, and Mozart made the very most of the many possibilities which the amusing story gave him.

The Overture, no more than an introduction to the opera, is in two movements, Allegro and Andante.