Ravenna Introduces Its Mozart 1791 Autumn Trilogy

Ravenna Festival is presenting its autumn trilogy Mozart 1791, a sequence centred on the final year of the composer’s life. An introductory event took place on 6 November at the Teatro Alighieri’s Sala Corelli, ahead of the staged programme from 13 to 17 November. Chiara Muti is responsible for direction and dramaturgy, with Ottavio Dantone as musical director.

The three-part programme brings together La clemenza di Tito, an original dramatic work titled L’ultimo incanto and the Requiem. The middle piece draws on arias, dialogue and letters to explore Mozart’s final creative period and includes material associated with The Magic Flute. This is a designed theatrical sequence, not a claim that Mozart intended the three pieces as a single cycle.

The 1791 frame offers a clear artistic rationale. In his last months Mozart completed stage works of sharply different character and left the Requiem unfinished. Placing them near one another can illuminate the range of his final output while allowing the production team to build connections through staging and dramaturgy.

The trilogy is the fifteenth edition of Ravenna Festival’s autumn format. Performances are scheduled at the Teatro Dante Alighieri. The event information reviewed here does not establish that all three parts occur on one evening; audiences should consult the detailed calendar for individual dates and ticket arrangements.

The introductory presentation gives the public a route into a programme that joins opera, new dramatic writing and sacred music. Its success will depend on whether the connecting idea helps listeners hear each work more acutely without flattening their differences. The confirmed news is the project’s personnel, dates and chosen repertory as the festival prepares its November performances.