The Mozarts, Who They Were Volume 2

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The value of only the theatrical costumes of the actress Raucourt amounted to 90,000 livre, even poor if we compare them to the 4,000 pairs of shoes and 800 dresses that occupied the wardrobe of the actress Hus in 1780.

And then diamonds, carriages and horses, servants that exceeded ten units, fine furniture, palaces (even two or three, often received as a gift from lovers).

In terms of comparison, let's say that the actors of the theaters of the fairs, often no less good, could earn in the same seasonal periods around 5,000 livre per year.

When they were asked to perform abroad (admitted and not granted that the permission to leave France was recognized) they were no less greedy, as in the case of the singer Caterina Gabrielli who asked for 5,000 Ducats from Catherine II of Russia.

To her assertion that she didn't even pay her generals that much, the singer replied: "Then let them sing."

The "spirit" of the time

Having "esprit and savoir vivre", spirit and refinement, was absolutely essential to attend the beautiful French society of the 18

century and it is no surprise that the young Mozart when he was in Paris, alone with his mother during the second attempt to break through in France, could not be accepted by an acolyte of rich, bored and snobbish people who, after having applauded him, made him wait for hours in the hall in the cold before receiving him.

Moreover, his "esprit" and his "savoir vivre" did not always prove to be up to the rituals and conveniences deemed worthy of a gentleman. Being fashionable also meant knowing "where" to go and "when" to go, on the "right" days. For example, it was considered elegant to show up at the Comédie-Francaise on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The shows at the theater began at 5.30 pm and ended at 9 pm (if some actress or dancer did not arrive late or did not throw a tantrum by delaying the shows for hours) and generally presented two titles: a first more important show called "grand pièce" and a second show called “petite pièce”.

To advertise their shows, the theaters had posters posted in the streets of the city with personalized colors: yellow for the Opéra, red for the Comédie-Italienne and green for the Comédie-Francaise.

Just as an example, to show the style of thought considered brilliant at the time, here are some jokes of the famous singer Sophie Arnould handed down to posterity.

Meeting the poet Pierre Joseph Bernard, known to always be very condescending and complimenting to everyone, asked what he was doing sitting under a tree. At the poet's reply "I entertain myself" she managed to find a lightning-fast comment warning him with the words "Be careful because you are chatting with a flatterer".

At the news that the satirical writer Francois Antoine Chevrier, author of poisonous pamphlets against the malpractice of the theatrical world, had died, Arnould exclaimed "He must have sucked her pen!".

Artists in prison

We have seen how the most famous artists behaved, on stage and in life, often over the top, not to say decidedly arrogant and disrespectful even towards the King and the highest courtiers.

The start of the show was delayed if the dress did not seem to live up to the fame they enjoyed or because the author had not satisfied them in adding arias and lines to enhance them better than their rivals. Performances were blown up claiming to be sick and then we would show up in the same evening in a box at the Opèra in the company of the lover on duty. Faced with these behaviors, the reaction of the authorities was more than soft: they summoned them to the prison of Fort-L'Eveque, a building in Paris adapted to a prison for petty crimes where the cells were paid and, if they had financial resources, it was also possible to furnish them according to personal taste, to invite people to party by eating and drinking the tastiest things on offer at the market.

A room with a fireplace cost 30 soldi a day (roughly the same as a theater ticket), if there was no fireplace it went down to 20 soldi, 15 soldi for each person in the common rooms, down to 1 penny a day for those who were housed in multiple rooms sleeping on straw (which was changed once a month!).

Interesting fact

Even then there was ticket scalping, that is the activity of grabbing tickets for shows and then reselling them at higher prices, but it was prohibited by law for the premieres and for the most anticipated shows. Complimentary tickets are also not a modern invention, they existed even then but could be used by those who received them only if the theater sold out by selling every available ticket.

It was a way not to damage the finances of the theater by letting in non-paying people who occupied the seats of those who would have gladly shelled out some money to see the show.

The pressures to attend the shows for free were evidently many, from anyone who had a position of power (nobles, officers, courtiers, musketeers) so much so that the King was forced to issue an decree, which was not respected, to prohibit those categories free admission.

Inside the theaters there was no silent attendance at the performances but the audience even interacted with the actors, making salacious comments to the acting jokes, or initiated noisy disputes between the stalls and boxes, not to mention the shouting of fruit sellers and printed magazines, more or less clandestine who passed between the boxes during the performances to sell their wares.

The price of tickets in the main theaters was 20 soldi (which towards the end of the century had become 48) and therefore the audience was frequented by people of bourgeois extraction among whom there were rarely women, due to the crowd and promiscuity of which forced a crowd.

The nobles rarely entered the stalls preferring to occupy the seats in the boxes (the cost of which however increased considerably) or even buy the very expensive seats placed directly on the stage.

Only towards the end of the century did chairs appear in the stalls (with price increases) and the less wealthy public had the only choice to attend the shows from the top of the gallery, the last rows immediately under the roof which in Italy are affectionately called "dovecote" by the patrons.

The throng in the stalls, where people were squeezed like sardines in the most famous shows, offered the opportunity to swift-handed criminals to relieve the unfortunate spectators who, distracted by the singing and acting of their favorites, realized it when it was too late: impossible in that chaos to identify the thief and even more difficult to chase him.

We had left Leopold Mozart while he was organizing the concert on 9 April 1764 at Signor Felix's theater. Still in the last letter from Paris, Leopold recommends that his faithful Hagenauer have 8 masses recited on consecutive days between 12 and 19 April (probably to propitiate the trip from Paris to London planned for those days). Concluding the letter, however, Leopold does not forget to deal with less spiritual topics: he is depositing the famous 200 Louis d'or but would like to find a way to transfer them to Salzburg, obtaining a profit by transforming the money into goods that, once arrived in Salzburg, could have sell with Hagenauer's help by earning 11 Florins for each Louis of gold. To achieve his purpose, he asks Hagenauer to mobilize his commercial correspondents in Augsburg who, among other things, had asked Leopold Mozart to do him services in Paris: probably purchases of fashionable merchandise that they would have resold at a profit in Augsburg. And certainly Leopold will not have done those services for free. Finally Leopold mentions the work he had assigned to a Parisian copper engraver to make the matrix (to be used for printing hard copies) of the painting made by the painter Louis de Carmontelle in which we can see Wolfgang at the harpsichord, Leopold behind him playing the violin and Nannerl behind the harpsichord holding the score while singing.

The Parisian compositions of Wolfgang Mozart

As we have seen before, Wolfgang began in Salzburg, from the age of five, before leaving for the European Grand Tour, to experiment his creativity with small minuets for the harpsichord.

These first simple compositions, probably used later also in the performances of a prodigious infant in Vienna and in the first stages of the European Tour, were taken up as regards form and stylistic features from the examples of various authors that his father Leopold had transcribed to him in a notebook. but also from the indications contained in the Gradus ad Parnassum by Johann Joseph Fux, a well-known instructional work at the time.

During the great journey, coming into contact with different musicians, styles and compositional forms, from the most modern to those already considered antiquated at the time, little Wolfgang gradually increases not only his executive and improvisational skills but also progressively enriches his a wealth of experiences that will lead him to try (with the supervision but often, also with the direct intervention of his father to correct and modify what was wrong) more complex creations.

One of the most popular and popular forms of the time (and also easier to creatively deal with for a keyboardist who also played the violin, as in the case of Wolfgang) was the harpsichord sonata with violin accompaniment.

In this particular compositional form the lion's share was played by the harpsichord while the violin was limited to performing counter-melodies, often in the third or in unison, taken from the melodic ideas entrusted to the keyboard or simple accompaniments with repeated notes and arpeggios based on principle harmonies.

For those wishing to listen to the main Mozart compositions of that period, looking for them in the discography or on the internet, here is a summary:

- K6 The first attempt to compose a complete Sonata for harpsichord and violin resulted in Sonata n ° 1 in C major, begun in 1762 and completed in 1764 during the European Grand Tour. The Sonata consists of 5 movements: 1 Allegro, 2 Andante, 3 Minuetto I, 4 Minuetto II, 5 Allegro molto.

- K7 Sonata n ° 2 in D major was begun in 1763 and completed in Paris in autumn 1764. It is made up of 4 movements: 1 Allegro molto; 2 Adagio, 3 Minuet I, 4 Minuet II

Both Sonatas K6 and K7 were published by Edizioni Vendôme in Paris in 1764 and dedicated to Madame Victoire, daughter of Louis XV.

- K8 The Sonata n ° 3 in B flat major, composed between the end of 1763 and the beginning of 1764 in Paris is made up of 4 movements: 1 Allegro, 2 Andante grazioso, 3 Minuetto I, 4 Minuetto II.

- K9 Sonata n ° 4 in G major includes 4 movements: 1 Allegro spiritoso, 2 Andante, 3 Minuetto I, 4 Minuetto II.

Both Sonatas K8 and K9 were published by Edizioni Vendôme in Paris in 1764 and dedicated to the Countess Madame de Tessé, Lady in the company at the Court of Versailles.

These 4 Sonatas are the first editorial publications of compositions created by Wolfgang Mozart.

The music Wolfgang listened to in Paris and the study of the many musical scores purchased or received as gifts from the main composers active in the city greatly influenced young Wolfgang, guided by his father in creating music suited to the prevailing taste. In particular, it was the German composers Schobert, Eckard and Honauer, whom Wolfgang knew and frequented in Paris, and who influenced these early Sonatas.