| fgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most amazing | | | | Constance Weber, who had no money and was |
| child prodigies in history, was born in Salzburg, Austria. | | | | impractical. |
| By the age of six, he could play the harpsichord and | | | | Then, in 1876, came his opera The Marriage of Figaro. |
| violin, write minuets, and read music perfectly at first | | | | Vienna loved it, and Prague was even more |
| sight. At eight, he wrote a symphony; at eleven, an | | | | enthusiastic. This success led a Prague Opera |
| oratorio; at twelve, an opera. * By his early teens, | | | | Company to commission Don Giovanni the following |
| Mozart had behind him many works that would have | | | | year. Don Giovanni was a triumph in Prague, but it |
| brought credit to a composer v three times his age. | | | | pushed the Viennese too far. The Emperor Joseph U |
| Mozart's father, Leopold, was understandably eager to | | | | acknowledged that it was a masterwork. |
| Omega Replica show him off and went to great | | | | Mozart's popularity in Vienna began to decline. It was a |
| lengths to ' do so. Between the ages of six and fifteen, | | | | fickle city: one was a society's darling for a few |
| Mozart spent almost half his life on tour in Europe and | | | | seasons, then they suddenly ignored him. And Mozart's |
| Eng- land. On his trips to Italy he was able to study | | | | music was considered complicated and hard to follow. |
| and master the operatic style which he later put to | | | | A publisher warned him:" Write in a more popular style, |
| superb use. | | | | or else I can neither print nor pay for any more of your |
| At fifteen, Mozart returned to Salzburg, which was | | | | music!"His pupils dwindled, and his elite snubbed his |
| ruled by a new princeArchbishop, Hieronymus | | | | concerts. In desperate financial straits, he wrote to |
| Colorado. The Archbishop did not appreciate Mozart's | | | | friends," Great god, I would not wish my worst enemy |
| genius, and he refused to grant him more than ' a | | | | to be in this position. I am coming to you not with |
| subordinate seat in the court orchestra. With his | | | | thanks but with fresh entreaties. " |
| father's help, Mozart tried repeatedly over the next j | | | | Many of Mozart's letters have been published. These |
| decade to find a suitable position, but there were | | | | spanned his life, and it is sad to move from the colorful, |
| never any vacancies. | | | | witty, and keenly observant notes of a prodigy on tour |
| The tragic irony of Mozart's life was that he won | | | | through his initial optimism about Vienna to the despair |
| more acclaim as a boy wonder than as an adult | | | | of "I cannot describe what I have been feeling." |
| musician. As a child, his complete dependence on his | | | | The events of Mozart's last year would have been |
| father gave little opportunity to develop initiative. Even | | | | good material for a grim opera plot. Though his health |
| when Mozart was twenty-two, his mother tagged | | | | was failing in 1791, Mozart was delighted to receive a |
| along when he went to Paris to seek recognition and | | | | commission from a Viennese Theater for a German |
| establish himself. | | | | comic opera The Magic Flute. While hard at work, |
| Unlike Haydn, Mozart began life as an international | | | | Mozart was visited by a stranger dressed entirely in |
| celebrity. He could not tolerate being treated like a | | | | gray who carried an anonymous letter commissioning |
| servant and eating with valets and cooks, and his | | | | a Requiem, a mass for the Dead. Unknown to Mozart, |
| relationships with his patron went from bad to worse. | | | | the Omega Speedmaster Replica stranger was a |
| By 1781, when he was twenty-five, Mozart could stand | | | | servant of an unscrupulous nobleman who meant to |
| it no longer. He broke free of provincial Salzburg and | | | | claim the Requiem as his own composition. Mozart's |
| traveled to Vienna, intending Omega Seamaster | | | | health grew worse, and the Requiem took on ominous |
| Replica to be a freelance musician. To reassure his | | | | implications; he believed it to be for himself and rushed |
| father, he wrote, | | | | to finish it while on his death bed. A final bit of |
| "I have the best and the most useful acquaintances in | | | | happiness came to him two months before his death. |
| the world. I am liked and respected in the best houses, | | | | The Magic Flute was premiered to resounding praise in |
| and all possible honors are given to me, and moreover | | | | Vienna. Its success probably would have brought large |
| I get paid for it. I guarantee you. I' II be successful." | | | | financial rewards, but it came too late. Mozart died |
| Indeed, Mozart's first few years in Vienna were | | | | shortly before his thirty-sixth birthday, and the final |
| successful. His German opera The Abduction from the | | | | sections of the Requiem were not his. The work was |
| Seraglio was acclaimed. Concerts of his own music | | | | completed from sketches by Sussmayr, his favorite |
| were attended by the Emperor and nobility. Pupils paid | | | | pupil. |
| him high fees, his compositions were published, and his | | | | Mozart's funeral was the poorest possible. His body |
| playing was heard in palace drawing rooms. He even | | | | was laid in a common grave assigned to paupers. |
| went against his father's wishes by marrying | | | | |