Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era

A composer of the Neapolitan School, Majo (1732-1770) enjoyed a short but distinguished career as an opera composer, with successful visits to Parma, Rome, Venice, and Vienna, where he was invited to write Alcide negli orti Esperidi to celebrate the coronation of Joseph II as Holy Roman Emperor in 1764. That same year Elector Palatine Carl Theodor commissioned Majo to compose Ifigenia in Tauride for the court theater in Mannheim. With a libretto by the court poet Mattia Verazi, the opera features a progressive musico-dramatic structure, incorporating French elements (especially pantomime and choruses), and reflects the strengths of one of the best orchestras of the day as well as an excellent company of singers. Majo's Ifigenia in Tauride is the culmination of an intense period of operatic reform and experimentation at Mannheim in the early 1760s.

Performance parts are available for rental: C46R

Music Sample

Music Publishers' Association Paul Revere Award, 1997.