ANTERO DE ALDA Photography Recent Works
|
Mozart: the unlikely death
The Boy Mozart, oil on canvas by PIETRO ANTONIO LORENZONI, 1763.
«Appearances and genius don’t always go along...» ANTONIO SALIERI in 'Amadeus' (Milos Forman, 1984).
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, like Giotto and Galileo, was a small man: an eccentric genius with little more then five feet. Smallpox, which attacked him (as it did to his sister Anna, or "Nannerl") at the age of 11, left some scars on his face — which was oversized, with a soggy jaw and prominent nose, surmounted by thick hair that hid a congenital deformity in his left ear. Here is a caricatured picture of an almost grotesque figure, that that also behaved somewhat ridiculous and in a stubborn way, which hampered him to raise money or friendships.
Son of Leopold Mozart, an illustrious (and strict) violinist of the Bishops of Salzburg, he played the piano by the age of 3 and soon after started to tune violins, memorizing music scores, became an expert in harpsichord and began to compose.
Almost as pursued by his successive physical weaknesses as by his reputation of precocious genius, he suffered since his troubled birth, respiratory infections, slow pulse and cardiac arrhythmias (with vertigo), arthritis, persistent vomiting, delirium, skin rashes, pneumonia... At the age of 35, he once and for all perished. Beside him were his wife Constanze (which many experts consider — foolishly, I suppose — as being frivolous and irresponsible), his sister-in-law Sophie and perhaps also his mother-in-law Cäcilia, with her eldest daughter, Josepha Hofer, who two months earlier was the first soprano to interpret the resourceful role of Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, in one of the several theatres, in Vienna.
«I am an ordinary man.» MOZART in 'Amadeus' (Milos Forman, 1984).
As a consequence for his disinterest in perks, both in death and in life (other theories consider that this was common practice in the eighteenth century Austria), Mozart was buried in a shallow grave, and soon his remains were lost. A victim of morbid conflicts between experts in politics, music and medicine, he was diagnosed at least 118 possible causes of death over the past 200 years: syphilis, murder (at the hands of the 'jealous' Salieri or by the assassins of the reformist Emperor Joseph II or still, by Masonry), rheumatic fever... and even larvae infection caused by eating undercooked pork.
Mozart was not victim of toxaemia (monarchical, masonic, gravidarum?) which stroked mortally in that time the archduchesses sisters Maria Joanna and Maria Josepha Gabriella (the later destined to marry the King of Naples and Sicily, Ferdinand IV), or their sister-in-law, Josepha of Bavaria (second wife to Emperor Joseph II). Neither was claimed as tragic, lyrical or an epic death in the Danube, as it happened with Krumpholtz, Celan, Gherasim Luca... in the Seine channels. Can’t the hypocrite speculators of Wolfgang’s corpse admit that a genius may die as an ordinary man?
On August 18th of 2009, a study by a group of experts from the University of Amsterdam, published in the North American Annals of Internal Medicine, states that Mozart died of a bacterial infection that caused high fevers and skin irritation, with kidney complications that made his body swell. Illnesses which much of the same age population in the Austrian capital suffered (including renal oedema, which can cause facial swelling), in that stormy end of autumn of 1791. Still, so state the chronicles; the sky was clear on the morning of that fateful day on December the 5th, despite the stormy and chilly winds of the previous nights.
____ Other improbabilities Constanze Mozart — Some romanticized biographies ensure that Mozart was abandoned by his wife at the end of his life, which lead to the musician’s burial in a common grave, unidentified. The truth is that the only separations were temporary and justified on health grounds: Constanze travelled with Mozart himself or her son Karl to Germany for thermal treatments (respecting the Caracalla traditions, the baths of Baden Baden are renowned as Europe's best) and she always returned to Vienna, shortly after. Judge the theses of adultery by yourself, but Constanze (as well as her sister Josepha) regularly participated in the works of her husband and their sixth son was born just a few months before the musician died. More than neglected by his wife, Mozart must have been neglected by his few friends, particularly by the brand new king, Leopold II, who succeeded Joseph II at the helm of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nor will it be too legitimate to charge Constanze of financial follies (more befitting of a stubborn genius than of a satisfactory soprano), since she was very skilful in the management of profits derived from Mozart’s works after his death. Indeed Mozart was not poor: revenues of his hard work over his last year of life were estimated at 5,763 florins! But his lifestyle, His health expenditure (consider the case of the cure of Constanze in Baden Baden) and his countless trips cost him dearly and have not always benefitted him. Obviously, after his death, it was not difficult to pay the accumulated debt of 3,000 florins. Constanze remarried. Her second husband, Georg Nikolaus von Nissen (Danish writer and diplomat), was an admirer of Mozart and wrote his first major biography, published in 1828, two years after his death. The widow of Mozart and of Nissen lived up to the age of 80 (1762-1842).
Antonio Salieri — It was very badly treated by Milos Forman and by all who had the impulse to create legends surrounding the life (and especially death) of Mozart: Pushkin and Rimskji-Korsakov, in drama and opera ‘Mozart and Salieri' in 1830 and 1898; Peter Shaffer in the play of 1970 that would inspire the 1984 movie. Would he really have been obsessed with Mozart (jealous of his magnificent work — at least he knew it!) and by his lovers? Did he really committed suicide (Cut his throat, so say the more barbaric) in an auspice, a final remorse access, shortly after confessing to have poisoned his rival with... antimony, acqua Toffana? Pure fantasy! The two renowned doctors who aided the musician in his conclusive days (Thomas Franz Closset and Matthia Sallaba) immediately withdrew this hypothesis. Salieri was orphaned by father and mother at 16 years old and was fortunate to work with the composer Florian Gassmann in Vienna, thereby getting to know and gaining the friendship of Emperor Joseph II. He attained some celebrity at that time and his opera «Tarare» was more applauded than «Don Giovanni» (both premiered in 1787). He was chosen by the Episcopate, to the detriment of the genius Amadeus, but he would be incompatible with the successor of Joseph II. He was one of the few to recognize in life, the importance of the Mozartian aesthetics. He teached Beethoven, Liszt and Schubert, among others, and he was known to have shared some of his students with Mozart himself. He died in 1825, over 75 years old.
Bacterial Infection — It is often assumed that an infection of “streptococcus”, such as the one that may have accelerated the death of Mozart (according to the team of experts of the Dutch university led by Dr. Richard H.C. Zegers), would now be easily cured by a simple antibiotic. However, in believing in the bulk of diseases to which he was diagnosed, there were not many chances that Mozart would have had a long life.
'Requiem' — The 'Missa pro Defunctis', commissioned in July of 1791 by an illustrious stranger (it was later acknowledged that it was in fact Count Franz von Walsegg, who had the habit of ordering operas to famous composers, in order to give private concerts in his castle of Gloggnitz), brought work and despair to the already weakened Mozart: lead him to think that he was writing his own funeral mass, adding to the theories of pre-Kafkaesque poisoning. In fact, the Austrian aristocrat ordered 'Requiem in C minor' (completed by a pupil of Mozart) in honour of his young wife, deceased in February of that year. Reportedly, it debuted in 1793 and he was not remarried.
Deaths in the Seine — Tragic, yes; but probably far more common than lyrical or epical. Laura Erber, the Brazilian artist known for her work on the river from the capital of France, stated in November of 2008 that in the Paris region alone, are retrieved from the Seine about 180 bodies each year. By some accounts, though in smaller numbers, the Seine and surely the Danube have certainly hosted multiple anonymous suicides. All in all, would it be a good choice for Mozart? |
