From Cornelius Rosse: There is only one Weekly Update I can paste in here. With SkyOpera events coming fast one after one another, I did not have time to write a second one. The piling up of our events is due largely to the need for accommodating engagement conflicts among the growing number of singers in ‘SkyOpera Live!’ But the WU is not a bad way to begin.
Mozart achieved his greatest fame by his late teens and earned more money for his family than he was able to make when he had reached his maturity as a composer. The multimedia presentation will examine the foundations of his inborn genius, the formative influences that have fostered his mastery of all musical forms of expression, and the unique character of his music, through which shine the richest human emotions as they, in turn, enrich our own sensibilities.
I may be going out on a limb in assuming that you will find the compositions of a 5-12 year-old child intriguing and interesting. However, these examples illustrate that we are dealing with a unique phenomenon. We reach the stage, very soon, when the child Mozart’s compositions can be favorably compared with those of fully established composers who were his contemporaries and we can genuinely enjoy them. It is also illuminating to find in the early works the germs of musical ideas and situations that burst into blossom in the later masterpieces. The marvel some of these early compositions elicit is authentic even if one disregards the age of their composer.
Our interest in Mozart is heightened by the extraordinary childhood in which his talent and circumstances immersed him; they make for an amazing human story. He had to combat an unusual number of illnesses, stresses, suppression and resentment, yet nothing could thwart his genius. He has visited and performed at practically every royal court in Europe and every noteworthy musical establishment in Italy, which bestowed degrees and other honors on him at a tender age, yet he could not obtain stable employment any time in his life and ended up being buried in a paupers’ grave.
It is challenging to present a cohesive picture of Mozart’s life and output between the ages of 5 and 25, when he gained his independence and maturity with the opera Idomeneo. For example, during this period, he composed 10 operas (more than during the remainder of his life), but he had to base them on inadequate librettos, on which he could not exert any influence, as he did in the case of his later popular operas. My purpose with the talk is to show you that despite these shortcomings, we can derive real pleasure from Mozart’s early works, because they contain gems that glow with a Mozartian sparkle.