Ravinia 2026 Issue 1

mother of Josepha, Aloysia, Constanze, and Sophie whom the Mozarts had met a few years earlier inMunich—in providing the now-unem- ployed musician a room in her house. His final severance from the archbishop’s court came on June 8 with a swift kick in the seat of his pants from the court chamberlain, Count Karl Joseph Arco. As his Salzburg position disintegrated, Mozart began exploring professional opportunities in Vienna. Johann Gottlieb Stephanie, the Young- er—the somewhat disreputable director of the National Singspiel (the German opera company at the National Theater)—auditioned Mozart’s earlier Singspiel Zaide in March, but rejected the score as too high-minded for his audience. In- stead, as Mozart reported on April 18 to his fa- ther, “Stephanie junior is going to give me a new libretto, a good one, as he says.” Months passed with no progress on the libretto. One unidenti- fied four-act libretto, selected by the famous German actor Friedrich Ludwig Schröder, evi- dently failed to pass the Censorship Commis- sion in June. Busy with other projects, Stephanie delayed another month before landing upon a suitable libretto—the recently published Bel- mont und Constanze, oder Die Entführung aus dem Serail by the popular Leipzig writer Chris- toph Friedrich Bretzner, which already enjoyed tremendous success in Berlin in a musical ver- sion by Johann André. The rumored visit of Grand Duke Paul Petro- vich of Russia with his wife, Princess Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg, sent the Belmont und Constanze project into high gear. Stepha- nie wanted the National Singspiel, as the most prominent musical theater institution in Vienna, ready for the September visit. Mozart knew well the abilities of his German and Austrian princi- pal singers—tenor Josef Valentin Adamberger Engraving of Johann Gottlieb Stephanie, the Younger, by Johann Ernst Mansfeld, after a painting by Joseph Lange (Belmonte), soprano Caterina Cavalieri (Kon- stanze), and basso profundo Johann Ignaz Lud- wig Fischer (Osmin)—and began composing at breakneck speed. Letters to his father provide an unusual amount of detail and insightful aesthetic statements. In a single day (August 1), Mozart completed arias for Belmonte and Konstanze and a trio for Osmin, Belmonte, and Pedrillo. The entire first act was finished one week later. Plans soon changed as word arrived that the Russian grand duke would delay his visit until November. With pressure off, Mozart undertook an extensive reshaping of the libretto with Stephanie, adding opera seria depth to the three main characters and capturing the special vocal skills of their interpreters. A letter to his father on September 26 conveyed Mozart’s intentions. Stephanie would write new texts for Osmin to highlight Fischer’s “excellent bass voice (in spite of the fact that the archbish- op told me that he sang too low for a bass and that I assured him that he would sing higher next time).” Belmonte’s feature aria “O wie ängstlich, o wie feurig klopft mein liebesvolles Herz!” was tailored for Adamberger’s voice and, according to Mozart, remained “the favorite aria of all those who have heard it, and it is mine also.” His leading soprano’s brilliantly agile voice prompted an exceptional accommodation: “I have sacrificed Konstanze’s aria a little to the flexible voice of Mlle. Cavalieri.” The work’s Turkish character occupies a signif- icant portion of this communiqué. After the Battle of Vienna in 1683 (when Hapsburg forces repelled the Ottoman army) and the ratifica- tion of the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, fear of the Turkish Empire steadily gave way to a wide- spread vogue for “turquerie” in 18th-century society. Turkish style influenced many aspects of daily life, including clothing, hairstyles, rec- reational activities (tobacco, candy, and coffee), and literary subjects, to name a few. Viennese musical audiences demanded pieces alla Turca , which composers such as Gluck, Haydn, Mo- zart, Salieri, and Beethoven kindly supplied. Little authentic Turkish music entered the European repertoire. Instead, composers em- ployed well-defined stereotypes of Ottoman military bands, otherwise known as mehter takimi or Janissary bands. An elite unit of the Sultan’s personal bodyguards, the Janissaries marched to strident, intentionally frightening music played by tomruk davul (double-head drum), zurna (a loud oboe), ceng zil (cymbals), küvrük kös (pair of large bass drums, like tim- pani), naffir or boru (long trumpet), cevgen (a long pole with bells), nakkare (paired drums made of small copper bowls and stretched skin), and other piercing wind and percussion instruments. Mozart emulated these sounds throughout Entführung in both instrumental and vocal numbers “to please the Viennese” or, as in one specific case, “to render Osmin’s rage comical by the use of Turkish music.” Programming changes forced another post- ponement of the premiere. Joseph II decided to feature two serious operas by Gluck— Iphigénie en Tauride in German and Alceste in Italian—for the visiting Russian grand duke and his wife. Mozart couldn’t bear further delay, especially Stephanie’s delinquency in finishing revisions to the libretto. The National Singspiel finally produced Die Entführung aus dem Serail ( The Abduction from the Seraglio ), K. 384, on July 16, 1782, at the Burgtheater. Mozart re- ported the usual cabals and musical casualties of the first few performances, but Entführung quickly became one of his most popular and oft-performed stage works. Its success did little to rescue the National Singspiel, however, which ceased business early the next year, replaced at the Burgtheater by an Italian opera company. Assured his first success as an independent artist in Vienna, Mozart next attempted to resolve the drama dominating his personal life: his relation- ship with Constanze Weber. Scandalous rumors had circulated the city ever since he accepted lodging in the Weber household. Leopold Mo- zart strongly disapproved of their relationship, considering Constanze an unworthy partner and her mother a conniver interested only in trapping unsuspecting men in marriages with her daughters. Despite his father’s objections, and the rift they temporarily caused, Mozart as- sured Leopold that Constanze “is a decent, good girl of good parents. …I am capable of earn- ing her bread —we love each other—and want each other.” One wonders how much the in- creasingly complex heroine portrayed on stage (Konstanze) offered an idealized representation of his own beloved (Constanze). Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart married in St. Stephen’s Ca- thedral on August 3, 1782. Portrait of Topal Osman Pasha (1663–1733), by anonymous 18th-century artist RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 11 – JULY 19 , 2026 78