- Köchel Number
- K9 70 | K6 61c
- Genre
- Opera & Stage Music
- Form
- Arias, Scenes, Ensembles & Choirs
- Key
- G Major
- Date
- 28 February 1767 & 1769
- Place
- Salzburg
- Age
- 13
Mozart’s Recitative and Aria “A Berenice” (K. 70) is a compact Italian licenza for soprano and orchestra, written in Salzburg in February 1769, when he was 13. Though rarely heard today, it already shows his instinct for theatrical declamation and a bright, ceremonial vocal style.
Mozart's Life at the Time
In February 1769, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was back in Salzburg, working within the courtly-musical world of Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach (1698–1771), whose name is invoked directly in the recitative’s text.[2] The work is usually dated to 28 February 1769, and belongs to the kind of occasional vocal pieces Mozart supplied as a teenage composer for local festivities.[1]
Musical Character
“A Berenice” is a two-part scena—an accompanied recitative (Tempo moderato) followed by an aria (Allegro moderato)—in G major, for soprano with orchestra.[1] The scoring is modest but festive (winds: 2 oboes; brass: 2 horns; strings: with continuo implied), well suited to Salzburg court ceremonial.[1] The aria, “Sol nascente,” is often described as a da capo design, with a contrasting central span that shifts meter (from common time to 3/8) before returning to the opening material—an early glimpse of Mozart’s feel for proportion and vocal rhetoric even in a small-scale homage piece.[2]