Herbert F. Peyser

“ The opinion is probably as true today as in 1787. For there is literally nothing like Don Giovanni, either among its composer’s creations or elsewhere. One can only share the emotion of Rossini when, being shown the manuscript score, he said to its owner, the singer Pauline Viardot-Garcia: “I want to bow the knee before this sacred relic!” And echo the words of Richard Wagner: “What is more perfect than every number in ‘Don Giovanni’? Where else has music won so infinitely rich an individuality, been able to characterize so surely, so definitely and in such exuberant plentitude as here?” ”

“ The creator of Figaro had valued friends in Prague. Among the dearest of these were the Duscheks, whom he had known in Salzburg—Franz, a gifted pianist and composer, and his wife, Josefa, both older than Mozart. Josefa, an excellent musician, became an exceptional singer, and for her Wolfgang was to compose some superb though difficult concert 40 arias. She was well-to-do and, with the money an admirer lavished on her, she bought herself an estate known as the Bertramka—still one of the show places of Prague, despite the vicissitudes of more than a century and a half. ”

“ Figaro is, if you will, the more perfect artistic entity of the two; Don Giovanni is looser, less consistent, on the surface even grossly illogical. But so, too, is human nature. And if all the world’s a stage, what more than a dramma giocoso is the experience of life? ”

“ Emanuel Schikaneder, who had known Wolfgang and Leopold Mozart in Salzburg, was a wandering actor and a playwright of sorts. The head of a traveling company, which gave Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, and, for better or worse, operas by Gluck and Singspiele by Haydn and Mozart, he had like numberless barnstormers a keen knowledge of the tastes of audiences, particularly of the plebeian ones to which his players catered. ”

“ The relentless dislike for the Webers that both Leopold and Nannerl continued to harbor was not mollified by this visit, which proved uncomfortable as long as it lasted. Wolfgang and his wife were relieved when the troublesome “duty call” came to its chilly end and they were back in Vienna once more. There was no end of professional business for Mozart to transact—composition in flooding abundance, lessons to give, concerts (“academies”) to organize, musical personages to cultivate. Just now, at least, there were no interminable travels such as had filled Mozart’s boyhood years. ”

“ Whatever the narrow intent of Lorenzo da Ponte, when he carpentered the book out of well-worn odds and ends, it was with a profound knowledge of the sorrows and absurdities of humankind that Mozart breathed into it an abiding soul.
45
“Long live da Ponte, long live Mozart!” had written the stage director, Domenico Guardasoni. “All impresarios, all artists must exalt them to the skies; for as long as such men live there can be no more question of theatre miseries!” The Duscheks outdid themselves to make life pleasant for their guests. ”

“ Scarcely were the travelers home once more than the kindly Archbishop died. His successor was the former Bishop of Gurk, Hieronymus, Count of Colloredo. Like many others, the Mozarts scented trouble, for Colloredo was a hard-boiled bigot and in every respect the reverse of his predecessor. He lives on in history principally as Mozart’s evil genius and as the man who, in the end, was to fan Wolfgang’s detestation of Salzburg to white heat and to drive him to open mutiny. ”

“ Certainly she was less agreeable several years later when she wrote her son, the archduke Ferdinand, governor-general of Lombardy, who contemplated taking Wolfgang into his service: “I do not know why you need saddle yourself with a composer or useless people.... It discredits your service when such individuals run about the world like beggars.”
At all events Leopold was voluble in the letters he wrote to his Salzburg landlord, Hagenauer, about the wonders of the Vienna visit and the impression exercised everywhere by Wolfgang’s talents and his lively intelligence and unaffected manner. ”

“ Frederick the Great had been a Freemason, Goethe was one, likewise Joseph II, Gluck, and Joseph Haydn. Eventually Mozart persuaded his father to join the society. Who shall say that its principles and philosophies did not serve Wolfgang as a protective armor, enabling him the more bravely to endure his social and material tribulations? ”

“ The “gallant” manner, the fresh, playful rhythms of his finales, and the relaxation modifying the dry composition technique of Leopold’s are elements for which Mozart is deeply indebted to the “London Bach.” Wolfgang’s early symphonies and piano music make it plain how much he looked upon Johann Christian as his model and how fully this master was the chief inspiration of that “singing allegro” that became a hallmark of the mature Mozart. ”

“ Economy was the order of the day: the aristocracy followed the example set by the imperial household, musical activities were reduced, and the Mozarts felt the pinch. Interest in the prodigies diminished.
Joseph II, who had succeeded his mother on the throne, expressed a desire to hear in Vienna an opera of the twelve-year-old boy’s composition and suggested such a work to the lessee of the court theater, Giuseppe Afflisio. The result was La Finta semplice, its libretto based on a Goldoni farce, and it was arranged that the composer should lead it from the harpsichord. ”

“ Since death is the true goal of our lives, I have made myself so well acquainted during the past two years with this true and best friend of mankind that the idea of it no longer holds any terror for me, but rather much that is tranquil and comforting. ”

“ Johann Georg’s first-born, Johann Georg Leopold, became for posterity simply Leopold Mozart, composer of arid music, author of a celebrated violin method, and father of Wolfgang and of Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia, whom the world remembers almost solely as “Nannerl.” It is a Nannerl, incidentally, that we have to look for a sort of continuation of the Mozart line down almost to our own time. ”

“ Love caused Wolfgang to build castles in the air and to concoct extravagant schemes. He composed abundantly in Mannheim, planned operas and what-not for his idolized Aloysia, and before long was writing to his father proposing to give up the Paris venture altogether and set out on a trip to Italy with the Webers. Leopold was horrified, the more 24 so as his wife wrote telling him exactly how things stood. Father Mozart sternly laid down the law to his son and ended with the words: “Off with you to Paris! And that soon! Find your place among great people. ”

“ In addition, the singer of Zerlina, Caterina Bondini, could not utter the peasant girl’s shriek in the first finale to the composer’s satisfaction until he terrified her by grasping her roughly and thus causing her to scream exactly as he wanted. After one of the last rehearsals the conductor, Kucharz, being asked by the master for his candid opinion of the opera, replied encouragingly: “Whatever comes from Mozart will always delight in Bohemia.” “I assure you, dear friend, I have spared myself no pains to produce something worthy for the people of Prague!” ”

“ Let us at this stage dispose of a few legends that, in the course of 160 years, have accumulated about the work. One is that the play is a farrago of childish nonsense, made tolerable only by the variety and grandeur of Mozart’s music; another, that the plot was altered at a late hour because another manager was about to produce a work similar in its story; a third, that the piece was a failure. As a matter of fact, the book of The Magic Flute happens to be one of the best librettos in existence from the point of view of good theater. ”

“ Its two efficient conductors (both of them Bohemians) , Josef Strobach and J. B. Kucharz, were heart and soul devoted to Mozart. The intensely music-loving Czechs jammed Mozart’s academies and could not hear enough of his symphonies and clavier works. Small wonder, therefore, that Bondini resolved to take advantage of the heaven-sent opportunity of Mozart’s presence to commission him to write a new opera for the company next season. The fee was the usual sum of 100 ducats (no more!) , the opera—Don Giovanni.
Actually, much more could be said of this Prague visit of Mozart’s. ”

“ Bondini had found the composer lodgings at the house on the Kohlmarkt called the “Three Lion Cubs.” Across the way, at the inn Zum Platteis, rooms were engaged for Da Ponte and, as the windows faced each other, composer and librettist had long discussions across the narrow street about details of the book, in the preparation of which Mozart, with his keen dramatic instincts, played a dominating role. He and Constanze appeared, however, to have spent quite as much time with the Duscheks at the Bertramka as at the “Three Lion Cubs.” ”

“ But, by and large, these pupils were becoming scarcer and there seemed steadily less patronage for the academies he planned. To make matters worse Constanze’s management of the household appeared to go from bad to worse. The arrangements of works like Handel’s Acis and Galathea and Messiah, which he was making about this time for the parsimonious Baron van Swieten, brought in as good as nothing. Mozart’s affairs were falling into a sordid, not to say a tragic, state. ”

“ Far more important in the creative sense are at least eight symphonies and four divertimenti, in all of which are traces of the ripening genius shortly to emerge.
The third Italian visit differed in some ways from the earlier ones. Lucio Silla, produced in Milan on December 26, 1772, was not acclaimed as Mitridate had been. Outwardly it was successful and enjoyed more than twenty performances but did not hold the stage. To begin with, the opera had an inferior libretto and Wolfgang, absorbing other musical influences, was less concerned about catering meticulously to Italian tastes. ”

“ And if his earthly tragedy has never seemed so poignant as it does today, we can take consolation from the circumstance that our generation has learned to prize the greatness, elevation, and beauty of his art more, perhaps, than did any of our predecessors. ”

“ Besides old acquaintances the “Herr Kapellmeister” had the good luck to present his “gifts of God” to the noted Italian violinist, Pietro Nardini, then concertmaster of the court orchestra of Stuttgart, and to the Italian composer, worthy Niccolo Jommelli, who was struck by Wolfgang’s abilities but against whom the mistrustful Leopold harbored various unjust suspicions. In Schwetzingen the Mozarts had the first opportunity to hear the then unrivaled Mannheim orchestra, which was to play a significant part in Wolfgang’s development. ”

“ It is not wholly surprising that Mozart’s religious conviction, which had earlier been a sort of childlike faith, weakened little by little—the more so because he was brought into growing contact with men who were profound thinkers and of whom many belonged to the secret society of Freemasons. ”

“ But the real reasons lay deeper. A prophetic ear might have detected the vibrations of a “storm and stress” period beginning to ferment in the spirit of the artist. Leopold made a vain effort to secure his son a post at the Grand Ducal Court of Tuscany, but Wolfgang received no more operatic commissions for Italy. So early in March 1773, taking a last leave of that land, they returned to Salzburg, where Leopold was angered to see Colloredo appoint an Italian rather than a German to the position of conductor.
The elder Mozart now determined to try his luck in Vienna. ”

“ The composer was probably delighted to have the chance to place on the stage a character named Constanze; and in the summer and autumn of 1781 he began the music of his next major opera, Belmonte und Constanze or Die Entführung aus dem Serail (“The Abduction from the Seraglio”) . This Singspiel, the book of which was originally the work of Christian Friedrich Bretzner, had been presented a year earlier in Germany with a score by Johann André. Under Wolfgang’s careful supervision the three-act piece underwent dramatic and textual modifications by Christian Gottlob Stephanie the Younger. ”

“ Henceforth it was not going to be so easy to obtain the great cleric’s leave to go wandering, whatever the reason. So for the immediate future the impatient young genius settled down to compose and to perform. A stream of works were put on paper in 1775 and 1776. Five violin concertos were written the first year. They 21 are the best known of Mozart’s concertos for that instrument and were conceived, in the main, for the violinist Brunetti of the court orchestra. With all their charm they still stand below the great clavier concertos in grandeur and epoch-making qualities. ”

“ But Mozart did get the discharge he had demanded.
The tale of the kick is familiar even to people who have 29 not the vaguest familiarity with eighteenth-century codes. We might be well advised, however, to suspend our judgment till we know both sides of the celebrated story.
“No more Salzburg for me!” Wolfgang gaily wrote his father. Barring repeated journeys to different cities, Vienna was to be his home for the rest of his days. He was not to find the material rewards and the secure position he had sought for so long, but he had that freedom his spirit craved. ”

“ He has, consequently, preferred to outline as best he could in the space at his disposal a few successive details of a life that was amazingly crowded with incident, early triumphs, and subsequent crushing tragedies, rather than to consider (let alone evaluate) the staggering creative abundances the master bequeathed mankind. ”

“ He died in New York many years after Mozart but, like him, was buried in a grave of which all traces have been lost.
Mozart suggested to his picturesque collaborator (who cheerfully wrote opera books for Salieri, Martin, Righini, and others) a libretto to be adapted from Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’ Les Noces de Figaro, of which Paisiello had recently composed Beaumarchais’ predecessor, Le Barbier de Seville. But Figaro had been prohibited in France because it reflected on the morals of the aristocracy and the same ban had been in effect in Vienna. ”