Following Ian Page’s highly acclaimed ‘Mozart in London’ weekend five years ago, The Mozartists celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s first trip to Italy in 1770 with the first-ever major retrospective of this important and formative year in Mozart’s life. Italy was still widely regarded as the home of opera, and in going there to further his studies Mozart was following in the footsteps of such esteemed compatriots as Handel, Gluck and Johann Christian Bach. The tour lasted for over a year, culminating in the triumphant premiere of Mitridate, re di Ponto at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan on 26 December 1770.