# Le Nozze di Figaro K492......NOT by Mozart?



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Recently I've been trying to get back into Mozart, I had recently realised that there's so much about his life and his study that I don't know. Many facts and theories about his life and sensationalised precocity leave us with a very popular view of Mozart as a "genius" for all to behold and blocks many true facts about Mozart that we _could_ have known if we weren't as oblivious to the facts.

An example: much of the fairly uneducated public believes that Mozart composed "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" when he was 3, 4, 5 or 6 years old. The age doesn't matter because it is FALSE, just as long as Mozart is given the title of a _very young genius_ then the public is happy. Most and probably all people here on TC would know that Mozart composed a set of variations for piano on the French folk song "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman" when he was in his mid-20s. How did the FALSE statement exaggerating Mozart's compositional output come into existence? Are people trying to make Mozart more than what he is worth? The _vast _quantity of brilliant composers from the second half of the 18th Century show a massive gap in many people's understanding of music and may even prove that the figure of Mozart as "genius" is blocking our view of all the music really out there.

Something interesting I have been reading from some Italian musicologists who specialise in 18th Century opera have gone so far as to say that Mozart's and Da Ponte's opera "Le Nozze di Figaro" was in fact not composed by Mozart, despite it being one of the most popular and most performed operas in the world. Looking through the Internet I found this:



> The 200 year old legend of Mozart is contradicted by a mass of evidence. But of equal importance are glaring gaps in the 'official' story. Where did W.A. Mozart learn composition, harmony and orchestration ? From which teacher ? At which school or college ? The answer is - SILENCE.
> 
> In remarkable musical research conducted in 2007/8 by Luca Bianchini, Anna Trombetta and Agostino Taboga of Italy the theatre score of the first performance of 'Le Nozze di Figaro' (1786) was analysed in detail from microfiches made at the Austrian National Library, together with the background history of that work. A rare event in Mozart research. The result ? This opera has music NOT by Mozart. It was, in fact, only a hastily made arrangement made by Mozart and da Ponte in Vienna of a work already existing in the German language. Which was staged full of musical and textual errors in its new Italianised form in Vienna in May of 1786. A version that was hissed and booed in its short run in Vienna. Mozart was NOT the composer of this music.


And a 228 page book by these musicologists (including an English translation) with delves into the idea even further, giving many primary source information from letters and programs of performances from the era. Read from page 23 for English text, I haven't read all of it, but it is certainly very interesting and something I am going to look into. So far I haven't found a more detailed essay on the composition if the work than this one.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Also, da Ponte didn't write the libretto, it was Christopher Marlowe.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

there is definitely a fictional cult around Mozart and it's likely because of his child prodigy past. Usually child prodigies don't go on to become important artists later on in life. So his is a good story to build a myth on. And he died young, like all _proper_ heroes  a PR wet dream.

whether he wrote Nozze or not is for musicologists (or whoever does this) to figure out. To me it sounds like the rest of his work but what do I know? and frankly, I couldn't care less who _actually_ wrote it, just as I don't really care who wrote Hamlet or who sculpted David. The authorship of these works has 0 bearing on my life, unlike the fact of their existence. I like what I know of Mozart the man but I'm hardly invested in his persona, he's more like a character in a book than a real person. The important thing to me is that whoever wrote Nozze did a very good job :tiphat:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

deggial said:


> there is definitely a fictional cult around Mozart and it's likely because of his child prodigy past. Usually child prodigies don't go on to become important artists later on in life. So his is a good story to build a myth on. And he died young, like all _proper_ heroes  a PR wet dream.
> 
> whether he wrote Nozze or not is for musicologists (or whoever does this) to figure out. To me it sounds like the rest of his work but what do I know? and frankly, I couldn't care less who _actually_ wrote it, just as I don't really care who wrote Hamlet or who sculpted David. The authorship of these works has 0 bearing on my life, unlike the fact of their existence. I like what I know of Mozart the man but I'm hardly invested in his persona, he's more like a character in a book than a real person. The important thing to me is that whoever wrote Nozze did a very good job :tiphat:


I do agree with your sentiments regarding the importance of authorship in the enjoyment of any form of art, but it is very interesting to look into and something in itself very enjoyable. I _love_ Le Nozze di Figaro, but I have also loved the mystery surrounding authorship of Mozart's works. People who are well acquainted with Mozart's early works would take for granted these days that his secondhand third symphonies were written by Leopold Mozart and C.F. Abel respectively. Doubtful authorship and false attribution of his later works is rarer (Symphony no. 37, actually by Michael Haydn, is the only well known one I can think of off the top of my head) so I was naturally intrigued by the idea of Le Nozze di Figaro being falsely attributed.

This won't change my opinion of the actual music itself though, which I have loved all my life and probably will continue to consider one of my favourite operas. 

Articles and books like the one I found and posted in my post above do show that there is a lot to music history that we don't know and don't pay attention to, and not knowing something only means that there is something new to open one's mind up to. Ignorance is not bliss, it is a barricade to block out the simple act of learning.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Aramis said:


> Also, da Ponte didn't write the libretto, it was Christopher Marlowe.


I thought Marlowe wrote the libretto to Verdi's final opera, as well as one of his earlier ones...or maybe it was actually a woman? A nobleman? I don't know...


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

While it is a shame many late-18th century operas have fallen out of the repertoire (I've found a few I like) it is not because of some preconceived notion that Mozart was a genius, it's because of the simple fact that his late operas (Idomeneo on) are vastly superior, in every way, to anything put out by other composers during his day. 

The idea that Figaro is not composed by Mozart is absurd. No other composer of his day would have been capable enough to write what is perhaps the greatest opera ever written. The music is Mozartian in every way. The conclusion I've formed is Luca Bianchini, Anna Trombetta and Agostino Taboga are dumbasses!


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

J


gellio said:


> While it is a shame many late-18th century operas have fallen out of the repertoire (I've found a few I like) it is not because of some preconceived notion that Mozart was a genius, it's because of the simple fact that his late operas (Idomeneo on) are vastly superior, in every way, to anything put out by other composers during his day.
> 
> The idea that Figaro is not composed by Mozart is absurd. No other composer of his day would have been capable enough to write what is perhaps the greatest opera ever written. The music is Mozartian in every way. The conclusion I've formed is Luca Bianchini, Anna Trombetta and Agostino Taboga are dumbasses!


Could you recommend me.....say _ten_ late 18th century operas to listen to?


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## Posie (Aug 18, 2013)

Do you have a reference for the original music? (The Mediafire link didn't work.)

If it is true that Leopold Mozart had had a successful career as a music teacher before his children were even born, of course he would have been their unofficial tutor. Even though Nannerl was older, being a girl would have severely limited her opportunities to become a composer. Wolfgang WAS a child-prodigy by 18th century standards, and had a musical parent-teacher to help him succeed into adulthood. (I take the behaviorist theory.)

About Le nozze di Figaro, unless it can be proven that it was composed by someone else, or that Mozart simply took the pieces of others and glued them together with recitatives, I will maintain that he is responsible. Maybe some of you can tell by the style, but there wasn't much individuality in the neoclassical genre.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Sounds like you've stumbled upon one of the rants of Robert Newman:

http://www.topix.com/forum/music/classical/TKV7LQLQFV593LJKP

Newman, once a member here... and nearly anywhere he can post... was certain that Mozart didn't compose almost anything attributed to him, nor did Haydn compose anything attributed to him, nor did Beethoven... but you get the idea. He suggested that all these composers were but fronts for a consortium of anonymous geniuses employed by the Jesuits, the Illuminati, the Freemasons, and several other secretive groups set upon establishing an Austro-Germanic hegemony over the Italians. Along with these, Newman is certain that 911 was orchestrated by Bush and Cheney, the moon-landing never happened, and Elvis is still alive and living in a trailer park somewhere in Las Vegas.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Sounds like you've stumbled upon one of the rants of Robert Newman:
> 
> http://www.topix.com/forum/music/classical/TKV7LQLQFV593LJKP
> 
> Newman, once a member here... and nearly anywhere he can post... was certain that Mozart didn't compose almost anything attributed to him, nor did Haydn compose anything attributed to him, nor did Beethoven... but you get the idea. He suggested that all these composers were but fronts for a consortium of anonymous geniuses employed by the Jesuits, the Illuminati, the Freemasons, and several other secretive groups set upon establishing an Austro-Germanic hegemony over the Italians. Along with these, Newman is certain that 911 was orchestrated by Bush and Cheney, the moon-landing never happened, and Elvis is still alive and living in a trailer park somewhere in Las Vegas.


Well, all I can say is: it's better to ask questions and find things out for oneself rather than simply go with the mainstream belief. And I love a good conspiracy theory. 
Newman is good for this, even though I might not exactly believe everything he has to say about the research he has done.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Could you recommend me.....say ten late 18th century operas to listen to?

*Joseph Haydn*- Armida
*C.W. Gluck*- Orfeo ed Euridice/Orphée et Eurydice, Alceste, Armide, Iphigénie en Tauride, Iphigénie en Aulide
*Cherubini*- Lodoïska, Medee
*Domenico Cimarosa*- Il matrimonio segreto
*Galuppi*- L'Olimpiade
*Giovanni Pergolesi*- La serva padrona, Il prigionier superbo, Lo frate 'nnamorato, l'Olimpiade
*Joseph Mysliveček*- L'Olimpiade
*Joseph Martin Kraus*- Soliman II - A Gustavian Turkish Opera

This whole period is currently undergoing rediscovery. There are any number of discs of solo arias of Baroque and Early Classical-Era operas. J.C Bach's work is especially fine... especially sung by Philippe Jaroussky.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Joseph Mysliveček- L'Olimpiade


Now wait a second, was the entire work ever recorded? As far as I know, it was not. So how can you recommend it to listen?

Well, maybe COAG will find a live performance to attend - with luck, it could be in the same galaxy in which he lives.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

> This opera has music NOT by Mozart. ... Mozart was NOT the composer of this music.


I'm all for chewing up sacred cows and seeing if their meat is worth the adulation but you know you are reading something shakey when you see something like this. It is rare in studying history that you can be so emphatic, you might say "the weight of evidence suggests he did not write it" but saying definitively that he didn't would be beyond any careful historian, although not beyond a historian that wishes to prove their own hypothesis.

I've never heard of Nozze's ascription to Mozart being doubted, and I don't know much about the subject, which makes me the perfect target for an essay where the facts that support a position are put forward in great detail and with as much positive slant as possible. While any evidence that supports the opposite conjecture is dismissed, downplayed or simply forgotten. Few of us here are really equipped to properly judge the essay and we are more likely to believe a well written piece than doubt it or spot weaknesses in the thesis, if not blatant problems.

The cult of the artist is strong. A 'Mozart' figure is created from the bare bones of his biography, half remembered stories third-hand from the Mozart's uncle's barber go to fill in the gaps that everyone (at least before facebook) had in their lives. Any story that points to future greatness of fulfils a storybook fantasy is repeated while mundane reality is forgotten. Baby composer -- what a genius! Pauper's grave -- how little we value art! But then the same goes for negative information depending on the era and what we want from our 'Mozart' invention. Once a creative phenomenon, a kind of lightening rod of god's inspiration on earth, the only light in a dark era of noisemakers; now a certain film depicts him as practically a dribbling idiot-savant and poop flavoured diary entries which would have once been politely ignored are now the essential fact about 'Mozart'.

I forgot where I was going with this but I thought I would post it anyway. Couldn't access the pdf.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Sounds like you've stumbled upon one of the rants of Robert Newman:
> 
> http://www.topix.com/forum/music/classical/TKV7LQLQFV593LJKP
> 
> Newman, once a member here... and nearly anywhere he can post... was certain that Mozart didn't compose almost anything attributed to him, nor did Haydn compose anything attributed to him, nor did Beethoven... but you get the idea. He suggested that all these composers were but fronts for a consortium of anonymous geniuses employed by the Jesuits, the Illuminati, the Freemasons, and several other secretive groups set upon establishing an Austro-Germanic hegemony over the Italians. Along with these, Newman is certain that 911 was orchestrated by Bush and Cheney, the moon-landing never happened, and Elvis is still alive and living in a trailer park somewhere in Las Vegas.


More than once in a while, I wish TC had a "Dislike" option -- in this case, and it is rare, I wish there were a "LOVE IT!" option as well.

There are Cabals of Conspiracy Nutters, and those are often comprised of people who just can not tolerate the fact that once in a while, it seems running regularly like buses, geniuses are born, manifest their astounding gifts and their ability to ply their craft at an early age. This is something a Cabal of Conspiracy Nutters finds repellent and intolerable because the fact of genius and prodigy genius by comparison so heightens their own stunning mediocrity. The works and writings of those nutters are rarely accepted by any publisher, even the publisher willing to print Merde simply because it is wildly controversial: instead, this sour grapes sort can now, thanks to the internet, publish their own work, where before, no one would have them.

Of course that no one would have them is credited as being a conspiracy, because to think otherwise means they might actually have to accept the message that their work is unacceptably sloppy, less than interesting or accurate, and that they are stunningly mediocre. Well, can't have that, can we now?

"The 200 year old legend of Mozart is contradicted by a mass of evidence. But of equal importance are glaring gaps in the 'official' story. Where did W.A. Mozart learn composition, harmony and orchestration ? From which teacher ? At which school or college ? The answer is - SILENCE."

There is only "SILENCE" if you wish to ignore a lot of documented letters, writings, historic accounts, and instead bolster your own ego with the fact you went to official academies, schools, conservatories and earlier era composers did not. The concentrated egocentricity of such people is remarkable -- _"I went to university and Mozart didn't, and here am I, coming up with something supposedly controversial in order to bring attention to myself, because I am envious of the attention genuine talent and true brilliance brought Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Shakespeare, etc."_ 'Whinging Spoiled (get ready, roll the R's) Brrrrrats With High Level Academic Diplomas [WSBWHLAD] might be a good name for this utterly worthless subset, or one of the better examples of tiny academic minds with large educations. (The highest quality seed is only as good as the soil in which it is cultivated.)

*What schools did Bach and Mozart attend? Uh, lemme think, that is a hard one. O.K. their parents were some of the more accomplished of musicians and teachers of the time. The answer, then, is "HOME SCHOOL," dummies!*

[ADD: It is my personal opinion that each individual from this little Cabal of Conspiracy Nutters are a waste of air, food, and internet column space.]


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## gellio (Nov 7, 2013)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Could you recommend me.....say ten late 18th century operas to listen to?
> 
> *Joseph Haydn*- Armida
> *C.W. Gluck*- Orfeo ed Euridice/Orphée et Eurydice, Alceste, Armide, Iphigénie en Tauride, Iphigénie en Aulide
> ...


These and I particularly love Salieri's La Grotta di Trofonio.

http://www.amazon.com/Salieri-Grott...r=8-1-spell&keywords=antonio+salieri+trafonio


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Could you recommend me.....say ten late 18th century operas to listen to?
> 
> *Joseph Haydn*- Armida
> *C.W. Gluck*- Orfeo ed Euridice/Orphée et Eurydice, Alceste, Armide, Iphigénie en Tauride, Iphigénie en Aulide
> ...


I already know a number of these, actually. I definitely want to hear the Kraus being a fan of his music!


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

StlukesguildOhio said:


> *Domenico Cimarosa*- Il matrimonio segreto


but not just Il matrimonio. I have just discovered his work beyond Il matrimonio and although completely silly, it's consistently ridiculously tuneful and briskly paced. I highly recommend it all to Mozart-comedy fans.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Here we go again...


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

It's all a laugh,if Mozart didn't write "Le Nozze" then he didn't write any of the other music attributed to him. All you have to do is listen and it is obvious that they are by the same composer whomsoever he may be.
As for the little tune, it was used for "Twinkle ,Twinkle Little Star," "Baa, Baa,Blacksheep " and the Alphabet Song.
The composer Adolphe Adam also wrote a set of variations on it for coloratura soprano for his opera "Le Toreador".


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## Antony (Nov 4, 2013)

> The 200 year old legend of Mozart is contradicted by a mass of evidence. But of equal importance are glaring gaps in the 'official' story. *Where did W.A. Mozart learn composition, harmony and orchestration ? From which teacher ? At which school or college ?* The answer is - SILENCE.
> 
> In remarkable musical research conducted in 2007/8 by Luca Bianchini, Anna Trombetta and Agostino Taboga of Italy the theatre score of the first performance of 'Le Nozze di Figaro' (1786) was analysed in detail from microfiches made at the Austrian National Library, together with the background history of that work. A rare event in Mozart research. The result ? *This opera has music NOT by Mozart*. It was, in fact, *only a hastily made arrangement made by Mozart* and da Ponte in Vienna of a work already existing in the German language. Which was staged full of musical and textual errors in its new Italianised form in Vienna in May of 1786. A version that was hissed and booed in its short run in Vienna. Mozart was NOT the composer of this music.


There are experts, and experts ... For the first question, even I am not a Mozartian, I can answer:

Mozart's father is he, or is he not, a violinist, a composer? He should know some basic notions of music to teach his son, I guess. The rest, Mozart figures it out alone as he continues to compose. More you work, more you get experiences, do you? As Mozart has a certain imagination (if one does not like the word - genius -), he can invent some new rules of his own. Can he ? What's so bizarre to understand to those researchers? Do they have some imaginations of their own? I guess they do. Because they dig out -Mozart is NOT the composer of Nozze di Figaro - Why do they deny Mozart this -imagination capability-?

Next

First, they said - The music is not composed by Mozart. In the next sentence, they said - a hastily arrangement made by Mozart - then they add - of a work already existing in the German language - and they concluded - Mozart was NOT the composer of this music !

Well, I want to help those italian researchers. In 10 minutes of ..googling and reading (and without any help), I found out

Le Marriage de Figaro or La folle journée is 1 story of a trilogy composed by a french nobleman, Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, a writer, a poet and a musician and also a businessman. The trilogy's name is - La mère coupable /The guilty Mother or Le roman de la famillle Almaviva / the Tales of Almaviva family.

Mr Pierre de Beaumarchais, a poet and musician himself, set his trilogy in plays. 
The Première of - Le barbier de Séville - was at 1775, February 23
The Première of - Marriage de Figaro - was at April 12, 1784. It was an enormous success. 
The Première of - L'autre Tartuffe - was at June 6, 1792.

One can easily guess, Mr de Beaumarchais can compose some interesting rhymes and tunes as he is a poet and a musician.

Mozart's Nozze di Figaro was -as said those researchers - in May of 1786.

Why don't those researchers have a look on Pierre de Beaumarchais works instead of digging in ... *an existing work in german* ? Maybe they find out some answers for their thesis instead of digging years and years in ...austrian archives.

Next
Those researchers described Mozart's work (in Nozze di Figaro) as - an hastily arrangement made ...on an existing work.

I have questions to ask those researchers

My first question: Why did the authors of the -existing work - became public instead of staying in the shadow? I mean, they could sue Mozart for copying their work and certainly ruined Mozart's career, didn't they? Salieri (in the movie Amadeus ) surely helped them wipe out Mozart's celebrity.

My second question is, as they found out this -existing work- Can they give out the author's name (music and libretto)? They just cannot throw out the muds on a composer that way. It's a cheap way to sell their imaginations to ...scandal lovers.

I find it funny those (ahem) italian researchers dismiss Mozart's -imagination capability- in Nozze di Figaro but they don't dismiss Rossini's imagination capability in - Barbiere di Siviglia -. Is Rossini italian ? I guess he is. Did Rossini work on an existing and successful work of Giovanni Paisiello ? Did Giovanni Paisiello worked on Pierre de Beaumarchais's comedy - Le Barbier de Séville ? 
So why don't they proceed the same way (they did with Mozart) with Rossini?

Guess what, italian researchers, if -Working on somebody's work - is not ...good, so Franz Liszt is definitely the guilty one. He -transcripted- works of hundreds of composers: Beethoven, Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Schubert....to name a few. You will find hundreds of Liszt's work -hastily arrangement made-. So you can easily dismiss Franz Liszt is NOT as good as we think he is.

But those italian researchers, did they compose any piece of music? A little tune suffice to see in which level they are to be the judge to state Mozart is -NOT- a genius we claim he is.

To see some researchers dismiss the genius of Mozart when nobody obviously coudn't (and still can't) produce the effect of the same -hastily arrangement-, well, it's very ...funny.


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## waldvogel (Jul 10, 2011)

So when Mozart wrote_ Don Giovanni_ a year later and had the string quartet playing _Non piu andrai_ at the party scene in Act I, he has Leporello saying that he liked the first two tunes (by two other composers) but that he knows the third one "a little too well".

Up until today I thought it was a clever little joke by Mozart and da Ponte in honour of the people of Prague, who loved Figaro so much. Now I know it is nothing but the vilest plagiarism by those charlatans of that great unknown composer who wrote Figaro. Where are his footnotes?


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

waldvogel said:


> So when Mozart wrote_ Don Giovanni_ a year later and had the string quartet playing _Non piu andrai_ at the party scene in Act I, he has Leporello saying that he liked the first two tunes (by two other composers) but that he knows the third one "a little too well".
> 
> Up until today I thought it was a clever little joke by Mozart and da Ponte in honour of the people of Prague, who loved Figaro so much. Now I know it is nothing but the vilest plagiarism by those charlatans of that great unknown composer who wrote Figaro. Where are his footnotes?


Don't be silly. Mozart didn't write Don Giovanni either.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

moody said:


> It's all a laugh,if Mozart didn't write "Le Nozze" then he didn't write any of the other music attributed to him. All you have to do is listen and it is obvious that they are by the same composer whomsoever he may be.


Agreed. The overture alone is _Mozart 101_.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

There was a long and vituperative thread on another forum started by an apparently Russian lady who believed that Mozart had written his requiem, in advance, for his own death -- which he had foreseen even before Haydn left for London. She was convinced that there was a vast conspiracy of disinformation to the contrary.

Her interest was apparently in "copyrighting" this idea and making money from it. Exactly how escapes me. I wonder if the subject of this thread is related...


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Couac Addict said:


> Agreed. The overture alone is _Mozart 101_.


maybe he only wrote the overture


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## aimee (Nov 7, 2013)

I adore herr Mozart's music. 
All valid points have been well said in previous posts, made me feel less annoyed by those ...wonderful musicologists/researchers 
Just want to add I can hear "Porgi Amor" in Nozze all over in his Bassoon Concerto K. 191 7:09-7:15; 7:47-7:52; 9:55-10:06. Well, I wish I could stop to work at this moment and enjoy the whole Nozze again


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I ended up engaging in a long dialog/dispute with Robert Newman over at a literature forum I frequent. Newman refused to answer any legitimate questions related to his theory, but instead simply bombarded us with endless quotes (in German, French, Italian, Latin, etc...) from documents that he claimed were proof of the vast fraud of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. 

Among the questions raised were:

How was this consortium of composers including Josef Mysliveček, Andrea Luchesi, and the Mannheim School able to write music on the level of the finest works of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, yet never produced anything remotely approaching this level when composing under their own names?

How was this consortium able to compose music for each of the composers in question that not only exhibited different and unique individuals and styles... but also clearly showed the growth of these composers over time?

Did "front man" Mozart simply pay off the real composers so that he was given the finest music? 

What was the purpose of this vast conspiracy that must have involved hundreds if not thousands? Newman argued that the goal was to gain control of the music industry... but how much was the music "industry" of the 1700s worth? 

A few other conspiracies that Newman championed, beyond those already mentioned: dinosaurs (he argued for a strict fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible with earth being only 5000+ years old), Goethe (another attempt by the Germans/Jesuits/Illuminati/Freemasons to dominate European culture and undermine the Italian Catholic Church) and Shakespeare (we all expected that one, didn't we?)


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

Nozze not composed by Mozart? Right. I'm wondering whether the "tell all" book was published by that "famous" house in Milan, "Manuzio" (the vanity publisher at the center of Umberto Eco's wonderful comic novel, Foucault's Pendulum.)

Same sort of elitism regarding Shakespeare. He wasn't noble or a peer so he couldn't have written the plays. And Mozart, not being a man of letters (as these three famous musicians are) he couldn't have written Nozze. In six weeks. But he did. His composition has been documented very nicely in most any well-researched bio. There's no doubt that Mozart was the composer.

It is fun reading the self-delusion we see in the quotes from the "experts" though. Ha.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

I may be in error here, but I seem to remember that Da Ponte wrote memoirs in his old age. I wonder if he made any references as to whom set his libretti to music. That is, unless the musicological researchers have found that Da Ponte was not the writer of those libretti that were set to music, it turns out, by someone other than Mozart. Now I have a headache. Must lie down.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

Beware of assuming that because something is a new idea to you, it is automatically true.
Any so-called research should be carefully evaluated for quality (does it appear in peer reviewed journals, reputable publications or on random websites?)


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