Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s music is, by operatic programming standards, the law. It pleases the people, because the people have come to know it: “The Marriage of Figaro,” “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute.”

That familiarity is precisely what makes the Boston Lyric Opera’s latest Mozart opera production so remarkable.

The company opens its 2024-2025 season Friday night with the tragic “Mitridate, re di Ponto,” a relatively underperformed opera composed when the boy genius was just 14 years old.

“['Mitridate’] was in my mind as like an interesting bridge between Handel in the Baroque and something that was teenage Mozart, not quite classical yet,” BLO stage director and conductor James Darrah told GBH News. “I was just fascinated by it. It’s kind of an interesting transitional moment in music history that I couldn’t pass up.”

The idea to perform this piece, Darrah said, came from tenor Lawrence Brownlee, who sings the title role.

For the season kickoff, Brownlee performs as the King of Pontus tangled in a political and military struggle against the mighty Roman republic. The cast also includes soprano Brenda Rae as Aspasia, and countertenor John Holiday as Farnace.

“I was just fascinated by it. It’s kind of an interesting transitional moment in music history that I couldn’t pass up.”
James Darrah, BLO stage director and conductor

“Mitridate” premiered on Dec. 26, 1770, in Milan, during the child composer’s tour of Italy. His precocious compositional skill was the stuff of wonder — although there were doubts about the quality of an opera penned by a teenage boy. However, “Mitridate” was well received, and Mozart himself conducted the first three of its 22 original performances.

Pinning down hard data on the frequency of “Mitridate” performances is challenging, since community theaters and opera houses don’t archive their complete season repertoires in one place. Yet a Spotify search reveals the discrepancy in popularity between “Mitridate” and other, more famed Mozart operas. “Don Giovanni,” for example, yields scores of Mozart recordings whereas “Mitridate” tops out at 35 results — and many of those have nothing to do with Mozart, Mithridates VI Eupator or Pontus.

“Mitridate” opens the Boston Lyric Opera season with two performances this weekend, first on Friday, Sept. 13, and then again on Sunday, Sept. 15.