diraimond

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Barry Lyndon (1975) dir. Stanley Kubrick / dop. John Alcott ii/ii

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Someone please stop me.

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Le nozze di Figaro, Teatro alla Scala, 2016

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Bye Mozart!

Most musicians of Mozart’s time were employed by royalty or nobles, and Mozart was no exception. He was the court organist for Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg Hieronymus von Colloredo when his opera Idomeneo premiered to great acclaim. However, musicians and artists of the era were typically treated like servants - they were trotted out to perform, then took their dinner in the kitchen with the rest of the serving class.

Mozart’s refusal to behave like a servant was progressive for the era, but also indicative of the composer’s ego and bizarre, almost overwhelmingly stubborn state of mind. He unilaterally decided some of the concerts Von Colloredo had him perform were not included in the terms of their arangement, and therefore demanded separate payment for them (which he didn’t get). At one high society function, Mozart, who, like all servants, was not meant to mingle with noble guests, caused a scandal by brazenly striking up a conversation with a Russian ambassador he knew.

Mozart’s refusal to apologize for his transgressions, even after his father went to great lengths to smooth everything over with the Prince-Archbishop, resulted in him literally being kicked out of Von Colloredo’s house, along with all his possessions.

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Ludwig II: Glanz und Ende eines Königs (Helmut Käutner, 1954)

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Okay, but..(?)

Why the fuck am I crying like a baby while thinking about Mozart?

Aish, I “miss” him so much; I would like to be born in the 18th century to meet him, become one of his friends (with benefits? Why not? U.U ..of course, I’m joking. Maybe), stay by his side, laugh with him, hear him play a piano concerto..

Uhg.

[diraimond]

Mozart’s Estate - Part 1

On December 5th, 1791, Wolfgang Amadé Mozart died in his Viennese apartment on Rauhensteingasse of an unknown illness. According to the official inventory of his death, he left behind 592 florins and 9 kreuzer worth of assets, with an approximate purchasing power equivalent to $17,764.50 in the modern day. This is likely an undervalued estimate to avoid too high of a tax upon his heirs. 

Below is a list of the value of his belongings:

Cash - 60 fl.

Salary - 133 fl. 20 kr.

Silver - 7 fl.

Clothes and linens - 55 fl.

Table linen and bedsheets - 17 fl.

Furniture - 296 fl. 8 kr.

Books and music - 23 fl. 41 kr.

The silver is valued so low because he had pawned the majority of it for a journey to Frankfurt, leaving him with only a handful of utensils.

His furniture was freshly upholstered and included a full-sized billiards table, one roll-top desk, one sofa, one couch, two divans, two bookcases, 18 upholstered chairs, and 60 pieces of porcelain. All of this and more furnished an apartment of approximately 519 sq. feet (145 sq. meters).

A Josephenian writing desk from Austria. Mozart’s furniture would have been of a similar design as this, with simple, clean lines and little embellishment. [x]

[Source: 1791: Mozart's Last Year by H.C. Robbins Landon.] [Currency Source: Mozart's leters, Mzart's Life by Robert Spaethling.]

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In spite of the widespread belief that Mozart died amid general indifference, there are accounts of a number of events that were organized right after his death to commemorate him. In Vienna, the Masonic lodge he belonged to organized a commemoration, but the biggest event was organized in Prague on December 14th: three thousand people gathered in the St. Nicholas church, where the bells tolled for thirty minutes. The National Theatre orchestra played Röszler’s Requiem and a concert was organized in the National Theatre to the benefit of Mozart’s wife and children.

Also, a lesser known anecdote is connected to Prague, which was the setting of many of Mozart’s happiest days, and it was reported in 1842 by a impoverished street harpist named Häusler: he was playing some tunes from Le Nozze di Figaro in a tavern (the “Nova Hospodá”), when Mozart himself complimented him and asked him if he could improvise on a melody. They improvised together for a while and Mozart was so content that he rewarded the harpist with money and a short composition. Many years later, when he was interviewed about his meeting with Mozart, Häusler was asked to have the piece of music published in exchange for a large sum, but he refused to give it away.

[diraimond]

5th December 1791 - 5th December 2018

FOREVER. ❤️

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“A place inhabited only by children, where all make music the whole day long, and all are good and kind, and the bad are not admitted even for a visit. In the Kingdom of Back every pleasure was possible; you just had to utter the magic formula.

Here forever happy are we

and nothing bad will ever be!”

(From “Mozart’s sister”, by Rita Charbonnier)

The writer of this fictionalized retelling of Nannerl Mozart’s life uses this magic formula as a sort of reference to the secret language that the real Mozart siblings allegedly invented for their own imaginary kingdom, the Kingdom of Back, a place where they could live free and escape reality during the long journeys across Europe with their parents. We don’t know if the siblings actually came up with a magic formula, but what we do know is that the writer of the novel took inspiration from an inscription in Latin found on a Roman mosaic which was unearthed in Salzburg on the site of the monument to Mozart during the installation of its pedestal: “Hic habitat felicitas, nihil intret mali.” (roughly: “Here lives happines, nothing bad will ever happen”. The mosaic is currently preserved in the Caroline Augustus Museum in Salzburg).

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

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Reblog if you want your followers to tell you which fictional character you remind them of.

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Romy Schneider as Sissi in Sissi, the Young Empress (1956), dir. by Ernst Marischka.

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My granny used to watch these films every single year and myself with her...

Sissi will be always a part of our relationship...Love you granny wherever you are now <3 

Sissi‘s wardrobe in Sissi (2/2)

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Sissi‘s wardrobe in Sissi (2/2)

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Sometimes Tom Hulce does that thing where he exists and then I die