Le Poème Harmonique / Dumestre

Two castaways are stranded on an island ruled by women, where the men are docile, flirtatious and even a little shy. Princess Cretidea rules unchallenged over her subjects until she falls madly in love with Roberto, the castaway who refuses to obey the island's laws. Even if the burlesque energy of the reversed relationships between the sexes is ultimately a mere thought experiment and the expected roles are reintroduced at the end, »L'uomo femmina« offers plenty of material for contemporary debate. The speed of the recitatives and the sparkling humour of the music by Handel's London rival Galuppi must have appealed to the young Mozart, who was six years old at the time of the opera's premiere.