Mozart’s Childhood Opera: ‘Bastien and Bastienne’

Mozart's opera is the story of two young shepherds, Bastien and Bastienne, and their happy ending, aided by the village’s magician, Colas. Bastienne is shown here with the magician Colas in a production at the Marinsky Theatre. (Public Domain)

Everybody is familiar with Mozart’s most famous operas: “The Magic Flute,” “The Marriage of Figaro,” and “Don Giovanni.” But few are familiar with “Bastien and Bastienne,” a one-act singspiel (a comedic German opera with spoken dialogue), which Mozart composed when he was only 12 years old.

It was long considered his first opera, for although “Apollo and Hyacinthus” was written when he was 11, it was not accepted in society for its same-sex theme, and “La Finta Semplice,” also written when he was 12, had a delayed production.

Uncertain Origins

We don’t know much about the origins of this opera. What we do know comes from Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, Mozart’s first biographer and the second husband of Maria Constanze, the composer’s former wife.

Mozart composed "Bastien and Bastienne" at the age of 12. He is shown in this 1770 portrait at about the age of 13 or 14, attributed to Giambettino Cignaroli. (Public Domain)

According to Nissen, the young prodigy composed “Bastien and Bastienne” in the summer of 1768 at the request of Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer, a famous Viennese physician and hypnotist, whom Mozart parodied in the Act 1 finale of “Così fan tutte.” The private performance supposedly took place in the physician’s garden theater in Vienna. However, in 1768, this theater didn’t exist yet, and the opera may never have been composed in Vienna.

Whatever the case, this was Mozart’s first singspiel and one of his first works. Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern wrote the libretto, inspired by a popular play in Vienna, “The Loves of Bastien and Bastienne,” which was a comedic parody of an opera by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The Village Soothsayer” (1752).

There are only three characters in the opera: Bastien, Bastienne, and Colas. These roles are often sung by a tenor or mezzo-soprano, a soprano, and a bass. While Mozart originally planned to transpose the role of Colas for an alto and replace some of the spoken dialogues with recitatives, he never did. This early Mozart opera was rediscovered and revived in 1890, in a Berlin performance.

A Delightful Pastoral

The plot of the opera is very simple. It is the love story of two young shepherds, Bastien and Bastienne, and their happy ending, aided by the village’s magician, Colas. It is essentially a pastoral, an idealized depiction of the shepherd’s way of life. The opera is short, light, and delightful.

Bastienne believes that her lover, Bastien, is unfaithful to her. Feeling abandoned, she seeks help from Colas, a magician. He comforts her and reassures her of Bastien’s love, while admitting that the young shepherd can be fickle at times. The magician suggests that she feign indifference to make her lover come back.

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This stratagem succeeds far beyond her hopes, and it is now Bastien’s turn to be distraught as Colas tells him that Bastienne has a new lover. Desperate, the young shepherd asks the magician for help. Following his request, Colas opens his book of spells and recites a magical formula.

Bastienne comes back but continues her stratagem, and pushes Bastien away. The lovers start to quarrel but soon remember their past happiness. The shepherds reconcile and Colas congratulates them. The opera ends with praise of the magician and the lovers’ newfound bliss.

Mozart's opera "Bastien and Bastienne" is a pastoral, an idealized depiction of the shepherd’s way of life. The opera is short, light, and delightful, with a happy ending. "Shepherd and Shepherdess Reposing," 1761, by François Boucher. (Public Domain)

It is a delightful plot, but what makes it so charming is its delightful music and the childlike emotions it portrays.

A Charming Opera

Although Mozart composed this opera as a child, it sounds very much like the composer’s future works, full of charm and subtlety.

The opera is short, with only 16 arias. The ensembles and solo arias are light, yet skillfully constructed and orchestrated with clear rhythms and evident musicality. While nothing in this singspiel is, strictly speaking, moving, every emotion is believable—from sadness, jealousy, and seduction. In “Bastien and Bastienne,” there is no useless palaver, only the magic of a child’s heart.

“Bastien and Bastienne” is an appealing work, with memorable melodies. Although there is no vocal virtuosity in this opera, Mozart displayed excellent writing skills for the voice and a talent for parody, which would bloom in his later works. Colas’s nonsensical aria “Diggi, Daggi,” for example, where Latin and nonsensical syllables combine, exhibits his schoolboy humor.

“Bastien and Bastienne” displays Mozart’s emerging talent in all aspects of musical composition. The young composer imitated the French, Italian, and German models, adding popular-sounding tunes, while demonstrating a confident sense of the style and its language. He created a work at the crossroads of the Baroque and Classical genres, creating a new kind of opera in what would become the 18th-century Classical style, and which would lay the groundwork for his later music.

More than the work of a child prodigy, it is the work of a genius. And it is unmistakably Mozart.