J. C. Bach : Carattaco – Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester

This is the world premiere of the opera Carattaco by Johann Christian Bach, organised by Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester.

Carattaco is a 1767 opera seria by Johann Christian Bach about the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century A.D. The work is in three acts, and it has never been fully revived in modern times, unlike most of the other operas by J.C. Bach. Among one of the main themes of the opera is the virtue and rhetoric of Caratacus, a Silurian King who is betrayed and defeated by the Romans yet is pardoned by Claudius Caesar for his eminent virtue and loyalty to his people.

The opera was premiered on 14 February 1767 at the King’s Theatre in the Hay-Market. It was received extremely warmly by the public, and a contemporary newspaper reviewer wrote: “the masterly Stile of the Music, and particularly the Grandeur of the Chorusses, makes it to be wished that Signor Bach may meet with further Encouragement, as his Genius and Judgment corrupted Taste of our modern Music, and, like a second Handel, again seem admirably calculated to reform the present restore that Elegance and Perfection we have for some time been Strangers to.”