Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Prague
The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is often said to have had a special relationship with the city of Prague and its people. Mozart biographer Maynard Solomon writes of
- an enthusiasm for Mozart that has passed into legend, with Prague seen as the good city that supported and understood him at a time when he had allegedly been neglected, even scorned, by Vienna.[1]
Mozart is claimed to have said, "Meine Prager verstehen mich" ("My Praguers understand me"), a saying which became famous in the Bohemian lands.
The Prague premiere of Figaro
Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro, which premiered in Vienna, was produced in late 1786 in Prague with tremendous success. The reviewer for the Prague newspaper Oberpostamtzeitung wrote "No piece (so everyone here asserts) has ever caused such a sensation as the Italian opera Die Hochzeit des Figaro, which has already been given several times here with unlimited applause."[2] The orchestra and some affiliated music lovers funded a personal visit by Mozart so he could hear the production. Mozart arrived on 11 January 1787 and was feted everywhere. On 19 January he gave an "academy" (that is, a concert for his own profit) at which the famous Symphony in D major, K. 504--now called the "Prague" Symphony--was premiered.[3] Mozart also improvised solo on the piano--including variations on the popular aria "Non più andrai" from "The Marriage of Figaro". Afterward, Mozart said he "counted this day as one of the happiest of his life."[4]
The great success of this visit generated a commission from the impresario Bondini for another opera, which like "The Marriage of Figaro" was to have a libretto by Mozart's great collaborator Lorenzo da Ponte.
The premiere of Don Giovanni
The world premiere of Mozart and Da Ponte's Don Giovanni took place in Prague on October 29, 1787 at the Theatre of the Estates, again with great success.
Berlin visit
Mozart returned to Prague in 1789 during a trip to Berlin, but stayed there only briefly; for details see Mozart's Berlin journey.
The premiere of La clemenza di Tito
Mozart wrote La clemenza di Tito for the festivities accompanying Leopold II's coronation in November 1790; Mozart obtained this commission after Antonio Salieri had allegedly rejected it.[5][6]
Why didn't Mozart stay?
After Don Giovanni, Mozart had an offer to stay and write another opera for Prague, yet he chose to return to Vienna (where he revised the opera for the local premiere). Maynard Solomon suggested that the reasons were first that Prague lacked the musical talent available in Vienna; in particular, the execution by the musicians of the Don Giovanni premiere was faulty and not up to the standard set in Vienna. In addition, a career like Mozart's depended on the support of the aristocracy, and Prague was only a provincial capital. The wealthy, music-supporting aristocrats whose estates were in the region were more likely to spend their time in Vienna than in Prague.
Commemorating Mozart in Prague today
Many tourists follow his tracks in Prague and visit the Mozart Museum of the Villa Bertramka, where the composer stayed with his friends the Duscheks on visits to Prague.
Notes
- ^ Solomon 1995, 417
- ^ Solomon 1995, 417
- ^ Solomon 1995, 419
- ^ Solomon 1995, 419
- ^ Davenport (1932), 360-361: "The Emperor Leopold II was to be crowned king of Bohemia in early September and the national States assembly at Prague had sent Wolfgang a commission to write the festival opera. Again Prague showed a loyalty that Vienna had never once indicated. Wolfgang would not refuse. He wished he had done so, however, when he learned that he was expected to write a new score to Metastasio's La Clemenza di Tito (K. 621), a stiff, tiresome tragedy, of the Italian vintage of Wolfgang's boyhood in Naples. But for this there was no remedy."
- ^ Eisen and Sadie, section 6
References
- Solomon, Maynard (1995) Mozart: A life, Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-092692-9
- Eisen, Cliff and Stanley Sadie. Article in the New Grove, online edition. (Accessed 09 May 2006)]. Copyright 2007 by Oxford University Press.