Happy Birthday, Mozart!

Posted on January 27, 2016 at 10:26 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-N2JleNeU

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born 260 years ago today, wrote eight operas by the age of 16 and produced over 600 works amounting to over 200 hours of music in his short 35 years. He was a brilliant composer whose work stands among the greatest of all human achievements. Here’s an animated version of one of his most brilliant works, “The Magic Flute” (there is a PSA and a commercial at the beginning).

I love the Ingmar Bergman version of the opera.

The movie “Elvira Madigan” used Mozart’s Piano Concerto number 21 so memorably it is now known as the “Elvira Madigan” concerto.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQPfOvcY75o

The PBS Newshour had a wonderful tribute.

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Amadeus

Posted on December 13, 2002 at 5:17 am

Antionio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham in an Oscar-winning performance), the court composer, should have been Mozart. He followed all the rules, worked hard, and cared deeply. Music was his life. Mozart (Tom Hulce) arrives, a bawdy, bratty, foolish boy whose music could enchant the angels. Salieri, ironically the only one who understands music well enough to realize Mozart’s genius, is consumed with jealousy.

Teens will be interested to learn that this movie was written by a man whose twin brother was for a time the more commercially successful of the two, both playwrights, which surely influenced his choice of subject and his approach.

Families who enjoy this movie should see Ingmar Bergman’s movie version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

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