the only Viennese apartment in which Mozart lived that can still be visited
At number 5 Domgasse, in Vienna, you can visit the Mozarthaus, the only Viennese apartment of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that is still preserved today. In 2006 a permanent museum itinerary was inaugurated on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his birth
On the occasion of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the great Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Salzburg, 1756 – Vienna, 1791), was inaugurated on January 27, 2006 the Mozarthausa permanent museum itinerary in the only Viennese apartment of Mozart which is still preserved today and which is still open to visitors. In a total area of about a thousand square meters and with the same layout of the rooms that the building presented at the time when Mozart lived there with his family, the building offers visitors the opportunity to learn not only a lot about the character and his works, but also the personal situation and social and what Vienna looked like at that time. A city certainly very different and much less populated than today: just think that within the walls of the city, the area that now belongs to the first district, had just over fifty thousand inhabitants.
Now at number 5 of DomgasseOriginally the apartment had the entrance at Schulerstrasse 8 (then Grosse Schulerstrasse, Stadt number 845). With a stately appearance, in the seventeenth century the house was divided on two floors, until in 1716 it was remodeled by the then owner, the master stonemason Andrea Simone Carove, so that when Mozart moved there in 1784 the house was on three floors as it is today. The composer obtained the right of domicile on the noble floor, which had four rooms, two closets, kitchen, ground floor, cellar and two wooden vaults for an annual fee of about 450 florins which belonged to the Camesina family, or rather to Maria Anna, Widow daughter-in-law of the court plasterer Alberto Camesina, who had taken over the house after the death of his father-in-law Carove around 1720.
Here Mozart and his family lived from 1784 to 1787: today it is a precious testimony, as it is the largest, most elegant and plus five apartment in which Mozart lived and the only one that remains intact today. The heart of the Viennese Mozarthaus is theapartment: it is here that he composes one of his most famous works, Le Nozze di Figaro, as well as three of the six Haydn quartets. Edited by Vienna Museumthe apartment includes images and documents thanks to which the public has the opportunity to learn more about Mozart and his family context and there is also a musical clock, made in 1790, which reproduces a variation of the Andante for a cylinder in a small organ, that Mozart composed precisely for this watch.
The second piano, Mozart’s Musicinstead offers the visitor an overview of the main musician colleagues in the Vienna of the time, including the collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte for The Marriage of Figaro and for the Don Giovanni. From the original stucco ceilings and murals you can perceive how the room was decorated in the composer’s time. The Requiem is also analyzed, which remained unfinished due to his untimely death, and a multimedia theatrical installation entitled The Magic Flute – Divine Laughter, showing three-dimensional collages of scenes from The Magic Flute. The multimedia installation Parallel Figaro offers one of the representations of Figaro in the main international opera houses and of the different approaches of the directors.
The third and top floor of the building, entitled Mozart’s Vienna, intends to address Mozart’s personal and social situation in Vienna. He calls her his father Leopoldo “The best place in the world for my profession” and “a great place”.
A’multimedia installation indicates all places in which Mozart lived during his years in Vienna. The public has the opportunity to discover interesting information on the places where he performed and on the major characters he gave life to in the course of his activity, the socio-political context, his links with Freemasonry and his social life, including aspects of dance, gambling, fashion, literature and science. An installation with five peepholes gives a glimpse of the forbidden erotic entertainments of the time: rare shows set up on the sides of the installation Granennemfenin which visitors can look through a door on a stylized scene that refined gentlemen and ladies of easy virtue.
Considered child prodigy par excellence, as at the age of four he was already able to play the clavichord and compose minuets and later he had also learned to play the violin and the organ, so much so that he performed very young in front of the Empress of Austria Maria Teresa, Mozart also loved having fun in the company of friends as an adult: he had a circle of illustrious friends and was invited to many concerts that were held in the homes of the nobles. Her older sister Maria Anna, called Nannerl, also possessed great musical talent, although not at the level of her brother. Born in Salzburg, Amadeus began to travel across Europe under the pressure of his father Leopold, also a composer and musician, to perfect his musical knowledge. After becoming an organist of the Salzburg court under the prince archbishop Hieronymus Graf Colloredo, Mozart lives in Vienna as an artist, composer and teacher. In 1782 he married Costanze Weber; the couple travels to Salzburg and Prague and of the six children only Karl Thomas and Franz Xaver Wolfgang survive the childhood age. Shortly after the first performance of the Magic Flute in the Freihaustheater in Vienna, the famous composer died in Vienna on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35, of “acute military fever”, leaving his Requiem unfinished.
I the Viennese years they were the happiest ones for him, not only because here he composes some of his best works, including The Marriage of Figarothe first of a series of collaborations with Lorenzo Da Pontewhich also led to the creation of the Don Giovanni and of So do all of them (in four acts, the plot of The Marriage of Figaro revolves around the history of the Count d’Almaviva fell in love with the Countess’s maid, Susanna), but also because she loved having fun at the evening parties in the house of the botanist, chemist and doctor’s family Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquinfrequented by artists and artists.
Amadeus used to wake up at six in the morning to dial from seven to nine; the rest of the morning was devoted to lessons (he also taught his friend Nikolaus’ daughter Franziska von Jacquin to play the piano), and the afternoon would start composing again and continued until nine in the evening, except when he had to perform.
From his apartment on the Domgasse to the Jacquins’ house, Mozart had to cross the Glacis, an open space between the city walls than Vienna and the suburbs. This area was a recreation area at the time with trees, paths, lawns, ponds and lanes lit by lanterns. The remains of the ancient city walls are still visible today.
In addition to the museum dedicated to the composer, the Mozarthaus now houses, in the second basement, the Bösendorfer roomwith the typical Baroque vaulted ceiling, which is used due to its excellent acoustics for chamber music concerts, musical recordings and events.
To learn more about the Mozarthaus you can visit the site austria.info
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