@Michael Schaffer said,”Except that it so happened that he wasn’t Austrian. During his lifetime, Salzburg was not a part of Austria. I know you couldn’t have known that because that wasn’t mentioned in “Amadeus” from where it seems you guys got all you know about Mozart.”
If by “you guys” you mean Americans, in this case I hope I can demonstrate that you are mistaken. One of my objectives is to correct the misconceptions of “Amadeus”. That happened to be a US movie, of course, with a MO connection, in that the then conductor SNM, directed the soundtrack of that tasteless movie and was very upset when he couldn’t get an Oscar for it.
You also said, “Like with any other successful artist, obviously there were people who were envious of his abilities or who disliked him personally. But on the whole, he was highly successful in Vienna. He earned a lot more money than most other musicians and lived a very comfortable lifestyle.”
That seems a somewhat simplistic statement. He was not ‘highly successful’. He was very much in debt when he died. And, although he worked harder than most other composers, if you look at the number of pieces performed in the length of time he lived, many of which are still considered masterpieces, he didn’t really live very long and certainly did not get to enjoy any financial independence.
And you just had to add, “Unfortunately, it seems that he wasn’t good at handling money and that he also had a little gambling problem. ” Excuse me? That is straight from Amadeus, and it isn’t the whole truth. He had a wife whom he was doing his best to care for and was intent on keeping the rights to his music. He was very controversial and unpopular, in terms of people stepping up to pave the way for his financial success. He did not seem to schmooze well on that level, and did not have the resources available today to superstars to maximize all of their intellectual properties.
If you really want to do some homework on Mozart, why not open up his last major opera and find a character with a name similar to Minnesota, and then ask if there could be any connection between that and what is happening at the MO.
Le Chant du Rossignol...(song of the nightingale) 