Mozart in Italy, part 4: "Such useless people"

Jane Glover, Mozart in Italy: Coming of Age in the Land of Opera. Picador, 2023. 262 pages. Image source: The Hanbury Agency

A continuation of the series on Mozart's Italian journeys; for the previous post please see "Mozart in Italy, part 3: The most dangerous place in all Italy."

Wolfgang and his father would not remain with Maria Anna and Nannerl in Salzburg for long. Arriving home in time for Easter at the end of March 1771, they were due back in Milan by the end of August so that the 15-year-old Wolfgang could compose the serenata for the wedding celebrations of the 17-year-old Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Milan, the fourth born and third surviving son of the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa, and the 21-year-old Princess Maria Beatrice d'Este of Modena.

Of course, both Leopold and Wolfgang held positions in the musical establishment of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Siegmund von Schrattenbach, and had been absent for 15 months during their first journey to Italy.

Siegmund III Christoph Graf von Schrattenbach, by Franz Xaver König, ca. 1760s. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Von Schrattenbach lost no time in putting Wolfgang to work, even though his position was unpaid. During the spring and summer he was kept busy composing several sacred works and also a serenata for Salzburg. The celebratory occasion for the Salzburg serenata, a setting of Metastasio's libretto Il sogno di Scipione (The dream of Scipio), was probably the anniversary of von Schrattenbach's consecration on 21 December. Since the Mozarts would not return from Milan until December, Wolfgang needed to compose Il sogno in advance to ensure that it would be ready in time. He also composed the oratorio commissioned by Marchese Ximenes in Padua, La Betulia liberata (Bethulia liberated, the Apocryphal story of Judith and Holofernes).

However, he could not begin work on the wedding serenata for Milan because during the summer the libretto was still being written by the court poet Giuseppe Parini. Even after the libretto was completed it would first be sent to Vienna to receive imperial approval. Wolfgang would have to be in Milan as soon as the approved libretto was available so that he could compose the music to suit the singers, rehearse the work, and have it ready for performance by mid-October. He and Leopold once more received leave from the Archbishop, although somewhat begrudgingly: even though they would be gone only for four months this time, von Schrattenbach ordered Leopold's salary to be stopped. (In the end his full salary was paid after Leopold petitioned for it on his return.)

Return to Milan and Ascanio in Alba, 13 August–15 December 1771

Leopold and Wolfgang left on their second journey to Italy on 13 August. Following the same route south through the Brenner pass as during their first journey, they made excellent time on their dry (and dusty) summer route except when their carriage wound up stuck behind slow farmer's carts on the narrow mountain roads.

They had planned to post the score of the oratorio Betulia liberata to Padua from Verona. They may have left the score with their Veronese host Pietro Lugiati for that purpose, although there is no mention in the letters that they did so. No performances of Wolfgang's Betulia liberata have been documented in Padua or elsewhere, and no libretto crediting him with the music has been found (the oratorio was set by different composers more than 40 times in the 18th century), so whether it was ever performed is unknown.

Swiftly crossing the northern Italian plain and arriving in Milan on Wednesday 21 August—traversing in just eight days the same distance that had taken a leisurely six weeks on their first journey—they discovered that their haste had been in vain. Three days after their arrival Leopold wrote Maria Anna,

I ought to tell you that we have not yet received from Vienna the text which everyone is awaiting with great anxiety, for until it arrives the costumes cannot be made, the stage arranged nor other details settled. [1]

Among those "other details," of course, was Wolfgang's musical setting of the words. The serenata was entitled Ascanio in Alba.

Title page of the libretto of Ascanio in Alba, Milan, 1771. Image source: Internet Archive

Ascanio, in this version of the myth the son of the goddess Venus and the Trojan hero Aeneas, is prompted by his mother to test the fidelity of his promised bride, the nymph Silvia, by appearing in disguise. At first Silvia rejects the idea of marrying Ascanio, whom she has never met, because she has fallen in love with a youth she has seen in a dream. When Ascanio appears undisguised but without identifying himself, she recognizes the figure from her dream but doesn't realize that he is Ascanio. Finally Venus descends from the heavens and sets everything right: Silvia learns that her dream lover is Ascanio, and he is declared the ruler of Alba, where he will found a great city and, with his new wife, produce a dynasty.

Although used for other ruling-class weddings before and afterwards, this story seems to allegorize the betrothal of the Archduke Ferdinand and the Princess Maria Beatrice.

Maria Beatrice d'Este, by Anton von Maron, c. 1770s. Image source: Château de Versailles

In 1753, when she was three years old, Maria Beatrice had been united by treaty to the six-year-old Peter Leopold, the third-born son of the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa.

Peter Leopold of Austria, by Jean-Étienne Liotard, 1762. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

But eight years later in 1761, when the Empress's second son Karl Joseph died of smallpox, roles were suddenly shifted. Since Peter Leopold was now second in line to the thrones of both his mother (the Habsburg ruler) and his father (the Holy Roman Emperor), the engagement to Maria Beatrice was broken and he was engaged to the more consequential bride originally intended for Karl Joseph: Maria Luisa, daughter of King Charles III of Spain. [2]

Two years later, in 1763, Peter Leopold's younger brother, 9-year-old Ferdinand, took his place as the fiancé of the now 13-year-old Princess Maria Beatrice. As in Ascanio in Alba, the groom's mother arranged the whole thing, and the couple would never set eyes on one another in person before their nuptial ceremonies.

The parallels make the "testing of virtue" plot of Ascanio seem even creepier. Maria Beatrice had, after all, been betrothed to Ferdinand's brother for eight years; Ascanio in Alba seems designed to reassure Ferdinand and all the courtly spectators that the switch in fiancés accorded with Maria Beatrice's own wishes, that he was her "dream lover." But this was a consoling fiction. Love was a luxury that royal couples did not require, at least in the view of the parents who arranged their marriages. Their job was to produce children: two sons, an heir and a spare, and any number of daughters, to be married off strategically among the European powers for the political advantage of the Habsburg Empire.

Ferdinand Karl of Austria, by August Friedrich Oelenhainz. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The wedding was scheduled for Tuesday 15 October, less than two months away from the time the Mozarts arrived in Milan. On Saturday 31 August Leopold could finally report,

The text has arrived at last [in a postscript to his sister Wolfgang added that it had arrived two days earlier, on Thursday], but so far Wolfgang has only written the ouverture, that is, a rather long Allegro, followed by an Andante, which has to be danced, but only by a few people. Instead of the last Allegro he has composed a kind of contredanse and chorus, to be sung and danced at the same time. He will have a good deal of work during the coming month. [3]

The "rather long Allegro" of the overture to Ascanio in Alba performed by Mozarteumorchester Salzburg conducted by Leopold Hager:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho7xWm8zg10

In a previous letter Wolfgang had written to Nannerl about their Milan lodgings,

Upstairs we have a violinist, downstairs another one, in the next room a singing-master who gives lessons, and in the other room opposite ours an oboist. That is good fun when you are composing! It gives you plenty of ideas. [4]

Wolfgang began with the recitatives and choruses, and then turned to the arias. His task was made even more difficult because he knew only one of the cast members: the exceptional castrato Giovanni Manzuoli, who would play Ascanio. Burney wrote of Manzuoli's first appearance in London in 1764, "Manzoli's voice was the most powerful and voluminous soprano that had been heard on our stage since the time of Farinelli; and his manner of singing was grand and full of taste and dignity." Manzuoli excelled in the cantabile (flowing, lyrical) style of singing; Burney noted, "His voice alone was commanding from native strength and sweetness. . .and as to execution [of rapid coloratura passages and elaborate ornamentation], he had none." [4]

Giovanni Manzoli [Manzuoli] Fiorentino. Image source: New York Public Library.

The Mozarts had first met him when they were in London in 1764, and had renewed their acquaintance in Florence the previous year. The vocal capabilities of the 51-year-old Manzuoli were thus probably known to Wolfgang. At his entrance, Wolfgang gave him time to warm up with a secco dialogue with Venere, followed by an extended accompanied recitative, before his first aria, "Cara, lontano ancora" (Beloved, though you are far away).

"Cara, lontano ancora" performed by Agnes Baltsa accompanied by Mozarteumorchester Salzburg conducted by Leopold Hager:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbg3ayZucsE

Glover writes that in composing the arias for Manzuoli "Wolfgang was manifestly aware of vocal gifts no longer at their peak." [6] Perhaps, but as we saw in Mozart in Italy, part 1, in 1770 Manzuoli was still expecting 1,000 ducats to appear in a Milan Carnival season—ten times what Wolfgang was paid to write an entire opera. Wolfgang later reported that Manzuoli had been paid 500 cigliati, or about 500 ducats, to perform in Johann Adolph Hasse's wedding opera Il Ruggiero, which alternated with Ascanio during the celebrations and which involved the same singers. This is apparently the same rate—there were two operas per Carnival season in Milan—although his contract had not mentioned Wolfgang's serenata, for which he expected to be paid an additional 500 cigliati. In the end he received 700 cigliati and a fine gold snuff-box for both the opera and the serenata; offended, he returned both the fees and the gift. His vocal decline could not have been very apparent, or Manzuoli would not still demand such fees. So we may hear in Manzuoli's Ascanio in Alba arias, not so much a composer attempting to disguise his primo uomo's vocal decline, but one (as was common practice) showcasing his strengths.

But tailoring the arias for the other singers required Wolfgang to meet and work with each of them.

The cast of Ascanio in Alba, Milan, 1771. Image source: Internet Archive

Jane Glover writes that, judging from the score, "The finest singer in Wolfgang's cast was clearly Girelli as Silvia." (This would not be a surprise; she was the prima donna.) "She had splendid coloratura, which Wolfgang readily exploited, but she could also convey the greatest tenderness." [7] In Part II, Silvia's aria "Infelice affetti miei," here performed by Edith Mathis accompanied by Mozarteumorchester Salzburg conducted by Leopold Hager, displays both aspects of her talent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehyw8tpklcY

Time was short, and Wolfgang reported to Nannerl on 13 September that he had "a very heavy cold and a bad cough." Nonetheless he had to compose without rest, because rehearsals in the theater would begin in only ten days. He pressed on, and a week later was able to write to his sister, "I cannot write much, firstly, because I have nothing to say, and secondly, because my fingers ache so from composing. . .There are now only two arias of the serenata to compose and then I shall be finished." The final aria was completed on Monday 23 September, the very day the recitatives were rehearsed for the first time. Wolfgang was, of course, also leading the rehearsals, and so never got a chance to fully recover from his exhausting composing marathon; in the midst of rehearsals ten days before the wedding he reported to Nannerl, "I am quite well, but always sleepy." [8]

Leopold was confident of his son's abilities, and had not only the chance to hear the music as Wolfgang composed it, but also in rehearsal. He wrote to Maria Anna on 28 September,

You will be pleased to hear that I have good hopes that Wolfgang’s work will win great applause; firstly, because both Signor Manzuoli and all the other singers are not only immensely pleased with their arias, but are looking forward even more than we are to hearing the serenata performed this evening with all the instruments; and secondly, because I know how good Wolfgang’s work is and what an impression it will make, for it is more than certain that his composition is excellently adapted both to the singers and to the orchestra. [9]

Il Ruggiero

In addition to Wolfgang's serenata, the Viennese court had commissioned the wedding opera Il Ruggiero from Hasse and the librettist Pietro Metastasio, both now in their 70s.

Title page of the libretto of Il Ruggiero, o vero L'Eroico Gratitudine (Ruggiero, or true heroic gratitude) by Pietro Metastasio, with music composed by Johann Adolph Hasse, Milan, 1771. Image source: Internet Archive

The story was derived from the last three cantos of Ludovico Ariosto's chivalric romance Orlando Furioso, in which the knight Ruggiero finally marries the woman to whom he has been long betrothed, Bradamante. She is the female warrior who, in male disguise, rescued the bewitched Ruggiero from the magic island of the seductive sorceress Alcina. The opera was fitting not only because it ends with a wedding celebration, but also in its choice of source, which honored Maria Beatrice. Her ancestor Alfonso I had been Ariosto's patron, and Orlando Furioso fancifully traces the lineage of the House of Este back to Ruggiero and Bradamante.

Il Ruggiero librettist Pietro Metastasio, attributed to Martin van Mytens II, c. 1740-1750. Image source: Christies.com

In the opera Ruggiero (Manzuoli) has been made prisoner by the Greeks, but is freed from captivity by their ruler Leone (Adamo Solzi, Fauno in Ascanio), who admires his enemy for his bravery. Leone, betrothed to Clotilde (Geltrude Falchini, Venus in Ascanio), decides he wishes to marry Bradamante (Girelli) instead. She sets a condition on anyone who would ask for her hand: first he must best her in single combat. Leone, knowing that he is no match for Bradamante, asks Ruggiero to stand against her in his place. Torn between love for his betrothed and obligation to his liberator, Ruggiero fights her as "Leone" until time expires, winning her for his rival. Leone, abashed by Ruggiero's adherence to his knightly code, admits before the Emperor Carlo (Charlemagne, sung by Giuseppe Tibaldi, Aceste in Ascanio) that Ruggiero fought in his place and that he wishes to honor his prior engagement to Clotilde. Carlo unites the two original couples and a double wedding is celebrated.

The cast of Il Ruggiero in Milan, 1771. Image source: Internet Archive

With its theme of the switching of fiancés and its Este-associated source, Il Ruggiero also seems to deliberately allegorize the situation of Ferdinand and Maria Beatrice. Curiously, it was originally intended (but not completed) for a different wedding the year before, that of Maria Theresa's daughter Maria Antonia with the dauphin of France; the French context is probably the reason it is set on the banks of the Seine near Paris. Maria Antonia and the dauphin would become better known to history as Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI.

Hasse's opera was performed the day after the wedding of Ferdinand and Maria Beatrice, Wednesday 16 October, and Ascanio followed on Thursday. Ascanio was an immediate success, as Leopold had predicted. Operas were not performed on Fridays, a day of penitence, and no performances had been planned for Saturday or for Sunday, which was the anniversary of the death of the Empress Maria Theresa's father. However, after the enthusiastic reception of Ascanio on Thursday an extra performance was scheduled for Saturday 19 October.

It seems that the response to Hasse's opera was not nearly so positive. On 19 October as he and Wolfgang were "just off to the opera," Leopold paused to dash off a note to Maria Anna: "We are constantly addressed in the street by courtiers and other persons who wish to congratulate the young composer. It really distresses me very greatly, but Wolfgang’s serenata has completely killed Hasse’s opera." [10]

Leopold was probably being sincere about his distress, as the Mozarts and the Hasses knew one another and were on friendly terms; nonetheless, he couldn't help but be gratified at Wolfgang's success, even if it came at Hasse's expense. On 26 October Leopold reported that two nights earlier "their Royal Highnesses the Archduke and Archduchess not only caused two arias to be repeated by applauding them, but both during the serenata and afterwards leaned over from their box towards Wolfgang and showed their gracious approval by calling out 'Bravissimo, maestro' and clapping their hands. Their applause was taken up each time by the courtiers and the whole audience." Wolfgang added in a postscript, "The two arias which were encored in the serenata were sung by Manzuoli and by the prima donna, Girelli, respectively," but did not indicate which they were. [11]

After hearing Ascanio, Hasse is said to have remarked, "This boy will cause us all to be forgotten." [12]

Johann Adolph Hasse by Balthasar Denner, c. 1740. Image source: Wikimedia Commons

No source I have found indicates how many performances of Ascanio were given, but from the evidence of the letters it looks as though there were at least six: 17, 19, 22, 24, 27 and 28 October. As we've seen, the performance on 19 October was added, and that on 28 October also may been added because it breaks the alternating pattern of the two works up to that point, and that Leopold mentions in his letters. [13]

After what may have been the final performance of Ascanio on Monday 28 October, Hasse's opera, which had clearly been intended as the centerpiece of the wedding celebrations (note the difference in the ornateness of its libretto compared with that of Ascanio), continued for a few more performances; Leopold and Wolfgang missed the (final?) Ruggiero performance on 2 November because Leopold had a bout of rheumatism. The Mozarts remained in Milan to have a celebratory meal at Count Firmian's with Hasse on 8 November; there Hasse was presented with a snuff-box and Wolfgang a watch set with diamonds (they both may also have received their fees on this occasion).

Leopold had been planning to leave Milan by mid-November, perhaps stopping off in Padua (could this be when a performance of Betulia liberata might have taken place?). But then suddenly word came from the Milanese court. Leopold wrote Maria Anna,

I hoped to leave for certain on the 18th [of November], but His Royal Highness the Archduke now wishes to speak to us when he returns from [his honeymoon in] Varese in a week’s time. So our stay here will have to be prolonged for more than ten days. . .My head is full and I have more things to think of than you can guess. [14]

Leopold was anticipating that the Archduke, who had clearly been very impressed with Ascanio, would offer both father and son a position at his court. If so, he was disappointed. When the Mozarts were finally received by the Archduke on Tuesday 26 November, he was evidently highly complimentary, but did not extend an immediate invitation to join his court. He may have held out some hope, however, because the Mozarts stayed in Milan for another nine days after their audience. Finally, receiving no definite word from court, they left Milan on 5 December. There was no time to stop off in Padua, and they headed directly back to Salzburg. On 8 December from Ala in the foothills of the Italian Alps Leopold wrote to Maria Anna,

The question which you asked me in one of your four letters which I found in Verona, I shall answer when we meet. All that I can now say is that the affair is not quite hopeless. [15]

The question Maria Anna raised was undoubtedly that of the possibility of an appointment to the Archduke Ferdinand's court in Milan. What Leopold didn't know was that as he and Wolfgang were crossing the Brenner Pass towards Salzburg, a letter from the Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna to her son Ferdinand in Milan was crossing in the opposite direction.

Empress Maria Theresa by Anton von Maron, after 1765. Image source: Château de Versailles MV 3859

The Archduke had written to her for advice about finding positions for the Mozarts at his court; her reply, dated 12 December, was blunt:

You ask me about taking the young Salzburger into your service. I do not know why, believing you have no need for a composer or useless people. If however it would give you pleasure I would not hinder you. What I say is so that you do not burden yourself with useless people or giving titles to people of that sort. If they are in your service, it debases the service when such people go about the world like beggars. Furthermore, he has a large family. [16]

The Mozart family, of course, numbered only four, and their purpose in "going about the world" was precisely to obtain a paid court position for Wolfgang. But the Archduke would not go against his mother's wishes, and no appointment was ever offered.

It was now winter; the days were short and the weather and roads were bad, causing delays, but Leopold and Wolfgang arrived in Salzburg on 15 December. The very next day they received the stunning news of the death of their employer, Prince-Archbishop von Schrattenbach. The future for them both was now extremely uncertain.

Next time: The final journey to Milan and Lucio Silla

Posts in this series:

• Mozart in Italy, part 1: "We shall not become rich"
• Mozart in Italy, part 2: "We have won the first battle"
• Mozart in Italy, part 3: "The most dangerous place in all Italy"
• Mozart in Italy, part 4: "Such useless people"
• Mozart in Italy, part 5: "There is little hope"

---

1. Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 140, 24 August 1771, in Emily Anderson, editor and translator, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, London: MacMillan and Co., 1938, p. 282.
2. At the 1738 marriage of Maria Luisa's parents, King Charles III of the Two Sicilies and Maria Amalia of Saxony, Vittoria Tesi performed. In 1762, as a six-year-old, Wolfgang met the famous Tesi (by then retired) in Vienna. For more details of their meeting, please see The first Black prima donna: Vittoria Tesi.
3. Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 141, 31 August 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 284.
4. Mozart to his sister, Letter 140a, 24 August 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 283.
5. Charles Burney, A general history of music, from the earliest ages to the present period, Vol. 4. London: Printed for the author, 1789, p. 485.
6. Jane Glover, Mozart in Italy: Coming of Age in the Land of Opera. Picador, 2023, p. 164.
7. Jane Glover, Mozart in Italy, p. 163. However, we have a first-hand account of Girelli's abilities around this time which contradicts this picture. Six months after she appeared in Ascanio, Burney wrote of her first appearance in London, "Her style of singing was good, but her voice was in decay, and her intonation frequently false, when she arrived here; however, it was easy to imagine from what remained, that she had been better" (A general history of music, Vol. 4, p. 499). One wonders whether Burney heard her at a time when she was indisposed.
8. Mozart to his sister, Letter 143a, 13 September 1771, Letter 144a, 21 September 1771, & Letter 146a, 5 October 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 288, 291 & 294.
9. Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 145, 28 September 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 292.
10. Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 148, 19 October 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 296.
11. Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 149, 26 October 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 297.
12. William Smyth Rockstro and Donald Francis Tovey, "Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus," Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 18, 1911, p. 950.
13. "On the 16th there will be the opera, the 17th the serenata, on the 18th, 19th and 20th nothing on account of the anniversary of the death of His Majesty the Emperor. On Monday the serenata will be repeated and so forth." As we've seen, a performance of the serenata was added on the 19th. Leopold to his wife, Letter 147, 12 October 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, pp. 295–296.
14. Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 152, 16 November 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 301.
15. Leopold Mozart to his wife, Letter 155, 8 December 1771, Letters of Mozart and His Family, Vol. 1, p. 304.
16. Quoted in Jane Glover, Mozart in Italy, pp. 169–170. Translation slightly altered.