Wildbad.(Wildbad Festival )(Brief Article)

On July 13, Germany's Rossini in Wildbad Festival exhumed Rossini's Maometto II and Peter yon Winter's Maometto--Il Fanatismo, which since 1817, when it was performed at La Scala, had fallen into oblivion. In his day, Winter (1754-1825) was a much respected composer--Rossini borrowed the harp-accompanied prayer from Fanatismo for the title character's prayer in Mose in Egitto. But Rossini's Maometto treats the Sultan Mohammed II, Winter's opera the Prophet Mohammed. (Neither opera is biographical.) With two Mohammeds on its bill, Wildbad gave the season the title "Islam and Europe," but program notes emphasized Winter's indictment of all terror and intolerance.

Like Voltaire's verse tragedy, Le Fanatisme (Fanatacism, 1741), on which it is based, Felice Romani's libretto for Winter's two-act melodramma tragico presents the Prophet as a bloodthirsty hypocrite, a characterization deeply offensive to Muslims. (In reality, Voltaire's target was the Catholic Church; he disguised his criticism by transferring the action to faraway Mecca, even dedicating his play to the Pope.) Prior to the action of both play and opera, Mohammed has seized Seide and Palmira, the son and daughter of his opponent, Zopiro. Little knowing they are brother and sister, they have fallen in love. Suspected of killing Zopiro's wife, Mohammed also harasses Palmira and incites Seide to assassinate Zopiro, whom he has accused of blasphemy.

Without exploiting the exotic background or oriental flavor of this meaty story, Winter composed a classical tragedy; using Mozart's Don Giovanni and La Clemenza di Tito as musical points of departure, he wound up closer to Norma's ensembles than to anything by Rossini. Winter's treatment of the orchestra is heavy, ...