Summary: <br> On this day in 1767 – 252 years ago today – Wolfgang Mozart’s first opera, entitled Apollo and Hyacinthus received its premiere in Mozart’s hometown of Salzburg. The composer was 11 years old.<br> <br> <br> <br> Mozart in 1777. Mozart’s father Leopold wrote of this portrait, ”It has little value as a piece of art, but as to the issue of resemblance, I can assure you that it is perfect.”<br> <br> <br> <br> In a letter written to his father in October of 1777, the 21-year-old Mozart expressed his passion for opera and the opera theater in no uncertain terms:<br> <br> <br> <br> “I have only to hear an opera discussed, I have only to sit in a theater, hear the orchestra tuning their instruments – oh, I am quite beside myself at once.” <br> <br> <br> <br> I would suggest that it is difficult for us, today, to fathom the full meaning of Mozart’s comment because, in our electronic, mass media-dominated videocracy, we have no single cultural equivalent to the opera house of Mozart’s time. For people living in late eighteenth century Europe, the opera house was a combination theater; Super Bowl half-time show; major league ballpark; rock concert; carnival mid-way; high-end fashion show; IMAX-style movie palace; theme park; special effects extravaganza: in sum, a total-sensory-immersion facility. The opera theater was for Mozart a virtual “virtual reality,” where things could happen, be seen, and be heard that very simply could not happen, could not be seen or heard anywhere else. Opera lighting and stage machinery of the time represented cutting-edge technology in the eighteenth century, just as CGI (computer-generated imagery) represents the cutting edge today. Production crews at major opera houses in Paris, London, Hamburg, Dresden, Rome, Venice, Naples, Prague, and Vienna were the Industrial Light and Magic, the Pixar of their time. <br> <br> <br> <br> For Mozart and his contemporaries, the opera theater was not just a place you went in order to hear people sing and watch them act; much more, it was a place where dreams came true, a place where anything was possible, a place where every aspect of the arts – literature, singing, dancing, acting, instrumental music, costuming, stage design, and technology – combined to create an experience like nothing else on earth.<br> <br> <br> <br> “I have only to hear an opera discussed, I have only to sit in a theater, hear the orchestra tuning their instruments – oh, I am quite beside myself at once.” <br> <br> <br> <br> Anna Gottlieb (1774-1856) in 1795<br> <br> <br> <br> For Mozart, the backstage experience of the opera house was almost as intoxicating as a performance. Mozart was himself a professional performer who toured extensively, and we would observe that a powerful camaraderie exists between performing artists who spend their lives on the road playing and singing before audiences. Mozart especially liked hanging out with singers, particularly with the ladies; there’s no doubt that Mozart had affairs after he was married in 1782 and those affairs were very likely all with singers. For example, during the rehearsals for The Magic Flute, he had affairs with both Barbara Gerl and Anna Gottlieb, the original Papagena and Pamina. And perhaps the only reason why he didn’t sleep with the singer playing the other leading female role in the opera – the Queen of the Night – was that that singer was someone named Josepha Weber Hofer, who happened to be Mozart’s sister-in-law! <br> <br> <br> <br> Mozart absolutely thrived on preparing a performance: the rehearsals and coaching of the singers and the orchestra; observing the construction of the sets and machinery; choosing costumes, makeup, and lighting. And most of all, Mozart loved to watch these “children of his imagination” – his operas – come to life before his very eyes and ears.
