Music Revolution! Mozart. Rossini. Whatever Next?

In April 1817, opera in London changed: Mozart and Da Ponte's Don Giovanni (1787) was finally performed at the King's Theatre 30 years after its Prague debut. Why did it take so long for this masterpiece to reach London audiences? Londoners preferred works such as Cimarosa's Gli Orazi ed Orazi (1796). From Mozart it was only a small leap for to endorse Rossini, whose operas were to become the soundtrack to 1820s Europe. These musical shifts are recorded in the reactions of Londoners who heard them, including Percy and Mary Shelley. Will Bowers tells the story of a musical revolution with operatic excerpts sung by Carl Gombrich (bass) and Emily Tsui (soprano), with Bryan Solomon at the piano.