Mozart
In the summer of 1791 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is to be found sitting in the summer house of theatre director Emanuel Schickaneder, the man who commissioned him to compose the music to accompany his libretto of ›The Magic Flute‹. To facilitate this task, he places his summer house at Mozart’s disposal. It is the last year of Mozart’s life. What emerges is one of the most beautiful and well-loved pieces of music ever composed – even though Mozart actually disliked the libretto intensely.
Paul Barz recounts the genesis of what is probably one of the most frequently performed of Mozart’s operas; and he reviews the composer’s adventurous life, in the form of dialogues and flashbacks, based on testimonies from the period – making particular use of letters from Mozart and other contemporaries. His childhood dominated by a strict and ambitious father who paraded the child prodigy all over Europe on extended concert tours, often with his sister Maria Anna (called Nannerl); his constant search for commissions, his fruitless striving for recognition and success; his amorous adventures and his marriage to Constanze Weber; the conflicts with his family, patrons and rivals.