Mozart: A Life in Letters: A Life in Letters (13 page)

You’ve made everything all right again! – – We were afraid only that a member of your household was unwell. From that point of view we’re all the more pleased in that we can now see that the reason for your silence was, rather, that you were all well and enjoying the garden. From another point of view, however, namely, our unduly long stay in Vienna, we are extremely displeased. Indeed, only our honour keeps us here, otherwise we’d have been back in Salzburg long ago. For would you want everyone in the whole of Vienna saying that Wolfgang was simply unable to write the opera or that it had turned out to be so wretched that it was impossible to perform it or that it wasn’t he who’d written it but his father etc.? Would you want people to look on in cold blood as such calumnies were everywhere put about? Would this redound to our honour? Indeed, would it redound to the honour of our most gracious prince? You will say:
What does His Majesty the Emperor say to all this?
– – Here I must be brief, as I can’t go into detail. But you’ll understand. If I’d known what I know now and if I could have foreseen all that has happened, Wolfgang would never have written a single note but would have been home long ago. The theatre has been leased or, rather, it has been handed over to a certain Affligio; he has to pay some 1000 florins a year to people whom the court would otherwise have to pay. The emperor and the whole of the imperial family pay nothing but have free admission. And so the court cannot say anything to Affligio as he undertakes everything at his own risk and is now in real danger of being ruined, as you shall hear in a moment.

His Majesty asked our Wolfgang whether he’d like to write an opera, adding how much he’d like to see him conduct it from the keyboard; His Majesty sent word to this effect to Affligio, who came to an arrangement with us in return for a payment of 100 ducats. The opera was initially to be given at Easter; but the poet
¹
was the first to
thwart this plan by repeatedly holding us up, claiming that he wanted to make a handful of necessary changes, so that by Easter we had received only two of the revised arias from him. The production was fixed for Whitsuntide, and then for His Majesty’s return from Hungary. But at this point the mask fell.– – –For in the meantime all the local composers, foremost among whom is Gluck, have undermined our plans in their attempts to prevent the opera from making any progress. The singers were incited, the orchestra turned against us, and everything was done to stop the production from going ahead. The singers, who in any case barely know their parts and who include one or two who have to learn everything by ear, were now prevailed upon to say that they were unable to sing their arias, which they had previously heard in our room, approving and applauding them and saying that they were happy with them. The orchestra was to say that it was reluctant to be conducted by a boy etc. and a hundred similar things. Meanwhile some people were putting it about that the music was entirely worthless, while others were claiming that the music did not fit the words and was unmetrical because the boy had insufficient command of Italian.– – –No sooner had I heard this than I demonstrated in the most eminent quarters that Hasse, the father of music, and the great Metastasio
²
had both declared that the slanderers who were spreading this report should go to them and hear out of their own mouths that 30 operas have been performed in Vienna that cannot hold a candle to this boy’s opera, which they both admire to the highest degree. It was now said that it was not the boy but the father who had written it. – – But here too the slanderers were discredited, falling
ab uno extremo ad aliud
³
and ending up looking foolish. I got someone to take down from the shelf a volume of Metastasio’s works, open it at random and give Wolfgang the first aria that fell into his hands: he took up his pen and, without giving it
any further thought and with the most amazing speed, wrote the music for it, with several instruments, in the presence of several eminent persons. He did this at the homes of Kapellmeister Bonno,
⁴
Abbate Metastasio, Hasse, the Duke of Braganza and Prince Kaunitz. Meanwhile another opera has been cast, and since there are no further objections, Wolfgang’s will be given immediately afterwards.– – – A hundred times or more I’ve been on the point of packing up and leaving; and if this opera had been an
opera seria
, I’d have left at once, at the first available opportunity, and laid it at the feet of His Grace: but as it’s an
opera buffa
and, indeed, one that demands certain types of
buffo
characters, I must salvage our honour here, no matter what the cost. The honour of our most gracious prince is also at stake. His Grace has no liars, charlatans and swindlers in his service who with his prior knowledge and gracious permission go to other towns and like conjurors throw dust in people’s eyes; no, they are honest men who to the honour of their prince and their country announce to the world a miracle that God allowed to see the light of day in Salzburg. I owe it to Almighty God to see this through, otherwise I’d be the most thankless of creatures:
and if it were ever my duty to convince the world of this miracle, it is now, when people are ridiculing all that is called a miracle and denying all such miracles
. And so they have to be convinced: and was it not a great joy and a great triumph for me to hear a Voltairean say to me in amazement:
For once in my life I have seen a miracle; it is the first!
But because this miracle is too visible and therefore undeniable, people want to stamp on it:
they are reluctant to let God take the credit for it
; they think that in a matter of years it will sink back to the level of something quite natural and cease to be a divine miracle. And so they want to remove it from the eyes of the world: for how could it be more visible than at a public spectacle in a large and populous city?– – –But why should we be surprised to find ourselves persecuted away from home when almost the same has happened in the child’s home town? – – What a disgrace! What inhumanity! You may wonder why Prince Kaunitz and other great
men, indeed, why even His Majesty the Emperor himself, do not give orders for the opera to be performed. In the first place, they cannot do so as it is the sole concern of Sgr Affligio (whom some people call Count Affligio); 2nd, they might possibly order him to give it at another time: but as it was Prince Kaunitz who, against His Majesty’s will, persuaded Affligio to invite to Vienna some French actors who are costing him more than 70, 000 florins a year and who are ruining him as they aren’t drawing the crowds that were hoped for, Affligio is now blaming Prince Kaunitz, while the prince, conversely, is hoping to persuade the emperor to take an interest in the French theatre and defray Affligio’s expenses; the result is that His Majesty has not appeared at any performance for several weeks. You see the annoying circumstance that had to happen at the same time and that helped persuade Affligio to shove Wolfgang’s opera to one side in order to keep his 100 ducats, while on the other hand this same circumstance prevented people from speaking to Affligio in an insistent, commanding and emphatic tone for fear that they’d have to compensate him for the 70, 000 florins. Meanwhile all of this was going on behind our backs. Affligio blamed the singers for the postponement, saying that they were both unable and unwilling to sing it, while the singers for their part blamed Affligio, claiming he had said he would not perform it and that he had even told them so himself: but of course they could always have this or that passage changed. And so it is going to be performed. But if some new obstacle is to present itself, as is bound to happen, I shall address my complaint to Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress and demand such satisfaction as shall salvage our honour in the eyes of the whole of Vienna and the rest of the honest world; for it would be no honour for us or, indeed, for the court in Salzburg if we were simply driven away by the envy that has been pursuing us and if, after our departure, we were to allow these villains to tell the ignorant public – as has already happened – that Wolfgang never managed to write the opera at all or that it had turned out to be so bad that it was simply impossible to perform it etc. etc. You see how we have to struggle to make our way in the world. If a man has no talent, he is unhappy enough; but if he has talent, he is pursued by envy in proportion to his ability. On top of
all this, one of the singers, Bernasconi, has now gone down with a bad cold, and Baglioni isn’t very well either: this is holding us up and will in turn delay the business for at least 3 weeks, so that it is with the most extreme annoyance, such as I have not known at any other time on our travels, that I now have to await the outcome of this hateful affair. All sensible people must note with shame that it is a national disgrace that we Germans are trying to stamp on a fellow German to whom other nations have done justice by their tremendous admiration and even by publicly acknowledging him in writing. But only patience and perseverance will help to convince people that our adversaries are malicious liars, slanderers and envious creatures who would laugh in their sleeves at their victory if we were to allow ourselves to be frightened or worn down or if we were to leave in a huff: and all the more so in that in Vienna such people as those who are invited to instruct a princess, for example, or an imperial prince, indeed, even those who merely breathe the air here and who are already proud enough that the emperor himself lives here, people, finally, who serve foreign princes – all these people must be viewed with contempt and spoken of contemptuously and basely by foreign princes. You now know my circumstances, I think, – – even though I have described them in only the most general terms. I would have told His Grace, our most gracious lord, about this occurrence if I had not hesitated to distract him from more important matters by so lengthy a tale. We all send our good wishes to our Father Confessor and beg him to lay them at the feet of His Grace. Herr Joseph will see from this report that my enemies in Salzburg wish us well as they are putting it about that Wolfgang received 2000 florins for his opera. Herr Peisser’s letters will tell you a different story, and we shall no doubt have to ask him for 50, perhaps 100 ducats, before we return to Salzburg. My wife and daughter thank you kindly for your good wishes. They have spent the day outside the city with a good friend, who has invited us back there this evening to celebrate Nannerl’s birthday tomorrow. Oh, we’ve already been thinking of the Nonntal!
⁵

Who’ll become Prince of Berchtesgaden? Baron Kulmer?
⁶
– –
I was told yesterday that Herr Küffel
⁷
has arrived here. He owes me 4 ducats, so I don’t suppose he’ll be asking to see me
. Farewell, we send our best wishes to you and to all our good friends. I am your old friend.

Species facti
¹

Many members of the local nobility having been convinced of my son’s extraordinary talent both by reports from abroad and by examining him for themselves, including setting him tests, it was invariably regarded as one of the most astonishing events of these and earlier times that a boy of 12 might write an opera and conduct it himself. A learned paper from Paris confirmed this opinion by declaring, after a detailed account of my son’s genius, that
there is no doubt that at the age of 12 this child will write an opera for one or other of the Italian theatres
; and everyone thought that a German should reserve this distinction for his own country alone.
²
I was unanimously encouraged in this; I heeded the general voice, and the Dutch minister, Count Degenfeld,
³
was the first to put this suggestion to the impresario Sgr Affligio, since he was already well acquainted with the boy’s ability from our meeting in Holland. The singer Caratoli was the second person to suggest it to Affligio; and the matter was decided with the impresario at the home of the physician-in-ordinary Laugier in the
presence of young Baron van Swieten
⁴
and two singers Caratoli and Garibaldi, the more so in that all of them, and especially the 2 singers, declared most emphatically that the whole of Vienna would be drawn to the theatre by even very mediocre music composed by so young a boy because of the extraordinarily wondrous nature of the event, not least to see this child in the orchestra, conducting his work from the keyboard. I therefore allowed my son to write it.

As soon as the first act was finished, I asked Caratoli to listen to it and criticize it in order to be sure of my position. He came, and so great was his surprise that he returned the next day, bringing Garibaldi with him. Garibaldi, no less amazed, brought Poggi to see me a few days later. All demonstrated such uncommon acclaim that, on my repeatedly asking:
whether they really thought it was any good? – whether they felt he should continue?
– – they were annoyed at my misgivings and more than once exclaimed with some feeling:
cosa? – – come? questo è un portento! questo opera andera alle stelle! è una meraviglia! – non dubiti, che scrivi avanti!
⁵
– &c. and a whole host of other remarks. Caratoli said the same to me afterwards in his own room.

Assured of the desired success by the singers’ approval, I left my son to get on with the work; but I also asked the physician-in-ordinary Laugier to sort out in my name the matter of payment with the impresario. This was done; and
Affligio promised 100 ducats
. In order to shorten my stay in Vienna, which was proving expensive, I then suggested that the opera be performed before Your Majesty left for Hungary; but some changes that the poet had to make to the text delayed work on the score; and Affligio declared that he would perform it after Your Majesty’s return.