![]() ![]() He also wanted greater personal freedom, and resented being subservient to an employer. His exposure as a child to the great cities and courts of Europe had whetted his appetite for cosmopolitan excitement. Mozart, however, was dissatisfied with the provincial life he led. Mozart, on the other hand, was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father, and upon the conclusion of his final tour in 1773 he took a job at the Salzburg court. Source: Wikimedia Commons Attribution: Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni License: Public Domain Image 4.16: This portrait, titled The Boy Mozart, was painted in 1763 by Pietro Antonio Lorenzoni. Although there is some evidence that she composed music later in life, she was never given the opportunity to pursue a career. Marianne, however, was forced to abandon public performance when she became old enough to marry. Beginning in 1762, Leopold took his children on extensive tours to perform for heads of state across Europe. Both children mastered the harpsichord and fortepiano (a predecessor to the modern piano), while Mozart also became an expert violinist. Mozart had an older sister, Marianne, who was his equal as a child prodigy. He subsequently abandoned composing to focus on their education. Leopold was successful in his career, but he soon realized that his children possessed greater talent than he did. His father Leopold was a composer and violinist at the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg. Mozart was born into a musical family in the city of Salzburg. It is also the work of the most important opera composer of the era: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). While Orpheus is a serious opera written for court performance in the early Baroque style, The Magic Flute (1791), composed nearly two hundred years later, is a comic opera created for commercial, public performance, and it exemplifies the pinnacle of the Classical style. This example was chosen for its historical significance, its intrinsic interest, and the many ways in which it contrasts with Orpheus. Opera was not truly dethroned as the West’s favorite form of entertainment until talking pictures became mainstream in the 1930s.Īlthough the variety and riches of the European opera tradition can reward a lifetime of study, we will examine only one more example here. Italian opera remained so dominant, however, that it was performed-most often in its original language-in every European country. Although the practice was first developed in Italian-speaking cities, it soon spread to France, England, and Germany, where new forms of opera were developed that catered to local tastes and languages. Over the next few centuries, opera became the most prominent form of public entertainment across all of Europe. \( \newcommand\)ĭuring his lifetime, Monteverdi saw opera become mainstream popular entertainment in Venice. ![]()
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