The performers invested so much in the music that we were carried away: Raphaël Pichon & Pygmalion rethink Mozart's Zaide at the Salzburg Festival

Mozart: Zaide - Lea Desandre, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Pygmalion - Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Marco Borrelli)

Mozart: Zaide oder der Weg des Lichts, Sabine Devieilhe, Lea Desandre, Julian Prégardien, Daniel Behle, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Pygmalion, conductor: Raphaël Pichon; Salzburg Festival at the Felsenreitschule, Salzburg
Reviewed 17 August 2025

A new version of Mozart's Zaide with extra music from other sources including Davide Penitente to create a modern version of the story in a performance notable for its musical riches

For Raphaël Pichon's latest project at the Salzburg Festival with his ensemble Pygmalion, he turned to Mozart's unfinished opera Zaide. Written as a speculative venture in 1779, Mozart put the work to one side in favour of Idomeneo and never returned to it. When he did return to writing a singspiel, the result was Die Entführung aus dem Serail which premiered in Vienna in 1782. The surviving material from Acts 1 and 2 of Zaide was discovered amongst his papers after his death. The spoken dialogue has been lost but Mozart's music is of sufficient quality to make people attempt a completion.

On 17 August 2025, Raphaël Pichon and Pygmalion presented Zaide oder der Weg des Lichts at the Felsenreitschule at the Salzburg Festival. The work was a pasticcio combining music from Zaide, the incidental music from Thamos, König in Ägypten and Davide Penitente, with new spoken dialogue by Lebanese-Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad, director of the Theatre national de la Colline in Paris. The event was directed, designed and lit by Bertrand Couderc with choreography by Evelin Facchini. Sabine Devieilhe was Zaide, Lea Desandre was Persada, Julian Prégardien was Gomatz, Daniel Behle was Soliman and Johannes Martin Kränzle was Allazim, plus dancers Tommy Cattin and Sabrina Rocha.

It was billed as a semi-staging but there was nothing half-hearted about the production. Raphaël Pichon and his large instrumental ensemble were one side of the Felsenreitschule's large stage whilst the other was an acting area. The production was modern dress and very definitely off the book.

Mozart: Zaide - Sabine Devieilhe, Julien Prégardien, Pygmalion - Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Marco Borrelli)

Wajdi Mouawad's book involved a young woman, Persada (Lea Desandre) returning to a prison (now a museum) in search of information about her mother. One of the guards, Allazim (Johannes Martin Kränzle) tells her the story of Zaide (Sabine Devieilhe) and Gomatz (Julian Prégardien) who were Persada's parents, and their struggle with the evil Soliman (Daniel Behle) for whom Allazim was a henchman.

The new plot thus used all the music from Zaide but expanded it with vocal items and choruses from the cantata Davide Penitente which in turn had music Mozart reused from his unfinished Mass in C minor. All the new musical material preserved its original words so the piece was polyglot, the singers moving between German and Italian. Completions of Zaide sometimes use music from Thamos which Mozart wrote around the same time, and we did have some instrumental itesm from Thamos. But Davide Penitente dates from five or six years later, thus giving a disjunct in style from the highly engaging singspiel to the more intense large-scale sacred drama of Davide Penitente.

During the prologue, the dialogue between Lea Desandre's Persada and Johannes Martin Kränzle's Allazim was polyglot, she asking questions in Italian and he responding in German. Then for the main Zaide, Kränzle provided all the spoken narration in German, including significant sections of melodrama, a device Mozart used in Zaide. This left us having a story told to us rather than experiencing it through the characters, and the differences in style between Zaide and Davide Penitente meant that the music seemed to illustrate rather than characterise the drama.

Mozart: Zaide - Lea Desandre, Sabine Devieilhe, Pygmalion - Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Marco Borrelli)

It was worth it, though, to hear Sabine Devieilhe singing Zaide's music. She brought a powerful intensity to her every utterance yet her way with Mozart's vocal lines meant that movements like 'Ruhe sanft' were pure magic. Lea Desandre made a poignant Persada, only in her final aria getting to really stretch her musical wings though she paired elegantly with Devieilhe for their duet from Davide Penitente.

Daniel Behle made an intriguing Solliman. He brought an admirable strength to the music along with his familiar sense of clear line. Behle received extra music from Davide Penitente which went some way to making explicit the character's change from evil to enlightened.

Julian Prégardien was an engaging and engaged Gomatz, though there was no denying that he was woefully underused musically. Johannes Martin Kränzle made an appealing narrator and he did a nice job of balancing the character's disparate aspects, after all this is the character who parallels Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

The chorus were joined by two dancers and as an ensemble they were highly physical, making a big impression with some 34 singers creating a thrilling sound. It was lovely to hear this music in a dramatic setting. Orchestrally this was a rich evening with Raphaël Pichon conducting an ensemble of some 45 players including double woodwind, two trumpets and three trombones. And I really enjoyed the sound of the forte piano in the ensembles. The beginning and end of the piece also used a recording of Mozart's music for glass harmonica, a mysterious and magical way of transporting us into the past, though I could find no credit for the performer in the programme.

Mozart: Zaide - Raphaël Pichon, Pygmalion - Salzburg Festival (Photo: SF/Marco Borrelli)

This was an evening of such musical riches that you easily forgot any dramaturgical infelicity. No version of Zaide will be perfect, but Raphaël Pichon and his performers invested so much in the music and the piece that we were carried away with them. 

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