Amadeus: A Guilty Pleasure

The 19th of September, 2014 marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the brilliant Milos Forman film, Amadeus starring Tom Hulce as Wolfgang Mozart, and F. Murray Abraham as the Viennese Court Composer, and Mozart nemesis, Antonio Salieri. In celebration of the upcoming anniversary, a large group of Mozart lovers all over the world gathered yesterday in front of their television screens for an international "watch party" sponsored and promoted by an event registered on Facebook.

It had been several years since I had indulged in watching one of my all-time favorite films, so I decided to join in the fun. I popped a large bowl of popcorn and put our copy of the Director's Cut version of the film in our DVD player and sat back to watch 180 minutes of this not-so-historically-accurate-but-wonderfully-addictive tale, once again.

It is here I will note that as a Mozart historian, it is not "politically correct" for me to love this movie. In fact, the world of musicology is riddled with elitist snobs who would label me as a "dilettante" for even uttering the title of the film.

To them I say, "bite me". It wasn't intended to be a documentary or a biography. Like Mozart's operas, it's a  farce--a comedy (although like Don Giovanni, it has its elements of dark tragedy). I know the difference between Mozart fact and fiction. Now thirty years after the film's debut, most people know that Salieri didn't conspire to murder Mozart. They also know that Mozart probably wasn't quite as socially awkward and over-the-top as he was portrayed in the film. But there are some other things that were portrayed in this film that people take as fact, that weren't such, so I'm taking the opportunity to list some of them here.

1. Mozart never had an affair with the singer, Caterina Cavalieri, though it is almost certain that she was the mistress of Antonio Salieri (despite the character's claim in the film that he "never laid a finger on her").

2. There is no evidence to suggest that Mozart ever borrowed money from Salieri, nor would Salieri ever have known about Mozart's financial affairs. Mozart actually experienced a very prosperous period between 1784 and 1787 when his popularity in Vienna soared through a series of subscription concerts for which he composed and performed some of his finest piano concertos. He did fall into debt, that is true, but he borrowed money from a textile merchant and fellow Freemason, Michael Puchberg. His borrowing didn't begin until 1788, two years after the premiere of Le Nozze di Figaro, and shortly after his next opera Don Giovanni, failed miserably in Vienna. There is also recent evidence to suggest that most of Mozart's largest debts were completely

paid off by the end of 1790 and that he entered once again, into a very prosperous period in 1791, which was the last year of his life.

3. Mozart did not die in poverty, nor was he buried in a pauper's grave. Contrary to the impression that the film leaves that the apartment was literally ransacked and everything sold to pay off debts, that is simply not true. As I stated above, by the end of 1790, Mozart was, once again, entering one of the most prosperous periods of his life. At the time of his death he was living in a fashionable apartment in a high-rent district in Vienna. He had a full staff of house servants, including several maids and a cook. His oldest son, Karl (the Mozarts had six children, with two surviving), was attending a very expensive private boarding school, and Mozart was maintaining the rent and household expenses for an apartment for Constanze at the spa in Baden (where she spent most of the last two years of their marriage).

Mozart's funeral and burial were paid for by the Freemasons as a benefit to his widow. The common grave was standard for a man of Mozart's educated working upper-middle class station. And unlike what was portrayed in the film, Constanze did not attend the funeral (nor did Salieri, for that matter).

4. The whole scene where the opera director, Herr Rosenberg, rips out the score of the "ballet" in Figaro, never took place. There was some controversy over whether or not the dance in Figaro and Susanna's wedding could be considered a ballet, resulting in a mild dispute between Rosenberg and Lorenzo da Ponte (the librettist). However, da Ponte, who was highly favored by the Emperor went directly to him and settled it in favor of keeping the dance in since it contained a major plot point in the story.

5. Mozart did not die suddenly after conducting a performance of The Magic Flute. He had actually fallen quite ill and took to his bed for two weeks before his death at 1:00 a.m. on December 5th, 1791. Constanze had to be summoned from the spa (as she didn't just suddenly sense that something was "wrong" as the film portrayed). Salieri was not present at Mozart's death bed, nor did he contribute to any part of the composing of Mozart's  Requiem (although that scene is probably one of my most favorites of the entire film).

If you get a chance during this 30th anniversary of the Amadeus film premiere, I encourage you to watch it again, and when you do, enjoy it for what it is; a beautifully made film filled with some of Hollywood's finest acting and memorable lines, costumes, sets, scenery, and of course, the music. We can't forget that, for in the end, it really is all about Mozart and his miraculous and beautiful music. And well...there it is.

Women's History Month - Ann "Nancy" Storace: A Woman Who Made Theater History

Although opera and musical theater were very popular forms of entertainment in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the women who took up the profession of acting were considered little more than common prostitutes. Many, if not most of them were pretty girls who came from lower class poor families and saw a way to get out of poverty by acting on the stage. If they were lucky, they'd capture the attention of some nobleman and become his mistress and he, in turn, would make her a star. Few had any formal education, and most were illiterate. If they landed a wealthy, noble patron, they could be the beneficiary of learning to read, and sometimes they would be sent to "finishing school" where they'd receive lessons in singing and perhaps playing the fortepiano, and sometimes acting.

When Nancy Storace arrived from London in Naples, Italy in 1778 at the age of 13, she already had the benefit of a formal education with studies in several languages, including Latin, Italian, and French as well as extensive training in singing and a formal musical education that included theory and composition, playing the fortepiano, harpsichord, and guitar, as well as study of the popular operatic literature of the time. Her father, Stepfano, was a musician and the director of the theater orchestra at the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens in London. Nancy's mother's family had been the proprietors of the gardens for years and had established themselves as one of the wealthiest and most successful educated working class families in London. When Leopold Mozart brought his wife and two young children, Nannerl and Wolfgang to London in 1764, they met Stefano Storace, who gave young Wolfgang lessons on the bass violin and pointers on composing for theatrical orchestras. Stefano was impressed with the Mozart children and the manner in which they were educated and he was determined to raise his children in the same way. His son, Stephen, was only two years old at the time and Nancy arrived in October of 1765. Like the Mozart children, both Stephen and Nancy displayed prodigious musical abilities.

After a successful performance tour of Italy, Nancy landed a prestigious position as the prima buffa of the newly-formed Italian Opera Company which was housed in the Burgtheater of the court of Emperor Joseph II in Vienna, Austria. Nancy was the highest-paid performer in all of Europe at the age of 17, and was celebrated for her intelligent and informed acting as well as her musical skill and education, which was
virtually unheard of for a woman of the theater in her time. It was there that she captured the attention of Wolfgang Mozart who was interested in composing an Italian comic opera that would showcase the popular singer. It was in 1786 that Nancy premiered the role of Susanna in Mozart's comic opera "Le Nozze di Figaro" (The Marriage of Figaro). Susanna has since been regarded as the quintessential Mozart soprano role. It is no secret that Mozart admired her for her intelligence and her professionalism, and when she returned to London in early 1787, he wanted to go with her.

After her return to London, she starred on the stages of Drury Lane and Covent Garden in her brother's operas, which were all composed especially for her. Her professional stage career ended when she retired in 1803, having been regarded as the first truly professional stage actress who won her acclaim and recognition through her own merits, skill, and efforts. She died a wealthy woman at her country estate in Dulwich on August 24, 1817 and was regarded as one of London's most beloved and respected singers and stage actresses of all time.

© K. Lynette Erwin, 2014

Irish tenor, Michael Kelly: Mozart's original Don Basilio and Don Curzio

Looming large in the Mozart and Storace stories is the Irish tenor, Michael Kelly. Born December 25th, 1762, Kelly first met Stephen and Nancy Storace when he was 18 years old at the harbor in Liverno, Italy. Kelly recounted in his Remininscences that Nancy, upon seeing his long, flowing locks of blond hair, mistook him for a girl and shouted out loud, "Look at that girl dressed in boy's clothes!" In typical flamboyant Michael Kelly fashion, he turned to her with a flourish and replied, "You are mistaken, Miss, for I am a very proper he animal and quite at your service!" He stated that the incident embarked them upon a friendship that lasted their entire lives. It was actually Kelly who first called Ann Storace,"Nancy" and it became the name that history remembered her by. Kelly later traveled with his friend, Nancy Storace, to Vienna in January of 1783 where they had been hired as premiere singers in Emperor Joseph II's brand new Italian Opera Company. It was during their time in Vienna that they met and befriended Wolfgang Mozart and later starred in his comic opera, The Marriage of Figaro. In February of 1787, the Storaces and Kelly returned together to London, where they finished out the rest of their careers together in London's theaters and opera houses in Covent Garden and Drury Lane.

In Mozart legend, Kelly was known as the creator of the part of the "stuttering judge" in The Marriage of Figaro, named Don Curzio. Kelly recounted that he and Mozart actually had words over his giving the judge a stutter. Mozart objected, fearing that it took away from the music. However, Kelly won the argument because of the audience's favorable response to the hilarious effect, and so it stayed. Consequently, the part of Don Curzio has always been played with a stutter.

Kelly played a double role in Figaro. In addition to the stuttering Don Curzio, he also played the lecherous music instructor, Don Basilio. The following is a performance of Basilio's rarely performed Act IV aria, "In quegl'anni, in cui val poco".

© K. Lynette Erwin, 2014

Happy Valentine's Day: The Breath of Love

A breath of love
From our sweetheart
A sweet refreshment
Will give a helping hand to the heart.

The heart which, nourished
By hope, by love,
Has no need of a better bait.