The story of Bastien und Bastienne is based on the musical pastoral Le Devin du Village by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The play was hugely popular in paraphrase and translation and entered the repertoires of travelling companies and children’s theaters. A shepherd succumbs to the enticements of the lady of the castle and tries to abandon his beloved. The village soothsayer appeals to his conscience and advises the abandoned Bastienne to feign coyness until Bastien shamefacedly returns to her. Mozart’s version, composed in Vienna in the summer of 1768, is based on a text by Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern that had been in existence since 1764. On his return to Salzburg, he undertook an ultimately unfinished revision of the work, improving the textual underlay and replacing the spoken dialogue with recitative. He also changed the vocal register of Colas and probably that of Bastien as well. The Carus edition is the first to treat these two versions separately.