Mozart in Revolt: Strategies of Resistance, Mischief and Deception
The prevalance of the epistolary novel in the eighteenth century led Leopold Mozart to conceive of a biography of his son Wolfgang that would be crafted from their letters. Wolfgang rebelled at the moralistic advice in the letters Leopold wrote him, however, and inserted deliberate deceptions--descriptions of events that never happened--into his own letters. Wolfgang also rebelled against the Enlightenment that Leopold embraced, preferring the rebelliousness of Voltaire. Wolfgang's operas, especiallyThe Magic Flute, expressed support of the people against authority subtly, to escape court censorship. Also, the carnival season before Lent was his favorite time of year; he played Harlequin and the German equivalent, Hanswurst, in real masquerades and in scatological letters to close friends. Several biographers, Schroeder points out, take the filthy letters as evidence of a deranged, childish personality. This, however, misreads the intelligent wit in the letters as a whole and their artfulness in playing to the general public and the particular recipient simultaneously. Wolfgang may have deceived his father, but Schroeder exposes him as the playful person he was.Alan Hirsch