Aria “Se mai senti spirarti sul volto” (lost, doubtful), K. 717
di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“Se mai senti spirarti sul volto” (K. 717) is a work attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) in the Köchel catalogue, but it is considered lost and of doubtful authenticity. No date, place of composition, key, or surviving musical text can be established from reliable sources.
What Is Known
The entry for “Se mai senti spirarti sul volto” appears in the International Mozarteum Foundation’s Köchel catalogue database as an aria for one voice, explicitly marked “lost” and “doubtful” [1]. No manuscript, early print, or dependable contemporary reference is cited there, and standard reference summaries likewise list K. 717 only as a lost, doubtful aria, without providing musical incipits, scoring, or chronology [2].
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The Italian title is also known from other composers’ settings of Pietro Metastasio’s text (notably in La clemenza di Tito traditions), so the phrase itself does not constitute evidence of Mozart’s authorship [3].
Musical Content
Because no score or reliable musical source survives, nothing secure can be said about melody, harmony, form, or instrumentation for K. 717 beyond the designation “aria” in the catalogue record [1].
[1] Köchel Verzeichnis (International Mozarteum Foundation), work entry for K. 717: status and basic catalog record.
[2] Wikipedia: Köchel catalogue (table entry listing K. 717 as “lost, doubtful”).
[3] Seen and Heard International review mentioning the text “Se mai senti spirarti sul volto” as an aria (in Gluck’s Clemenza di Tito context), illustrating the title’s broader circulation outside Mozart.