A Child named Christian Mozart

On 16 November 1789 Constanze Mozart gave birth to a child that was so weak that it only lived for one hour. If a newborn child was very weak or stillborn, it was the midwife's obligation to perform an immediate emergency baptism. In such cases the child was filed under the term "fraugetauft" (meaning "baptized by the woman"). If the newborn died soon after its birth, no official entry in the baptismal records of the parish was entered up and the child's name and the circumstances of its christening only appear in the records pertaining to the child's burial. In the 1789 death register of the municipal Totenbeschreibamt (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 92, M, fol. 48v) Mozart's fifth child is given with the rather curious first name "Kristian".

Den 16ten

Mozart          Wohledler H:[err] Wolfgang, K:K: Kapelmeister / s.[ein] frauengetauftes K[ind] Kristian, so bei St. Nicolai / N° 245 am Judenplatz an der Fraißen von / Mutterleib besch[au]t word[en]                             M[atthäus] R[auscher]

Sir Wolfgang Mozart, imperial and royal Kapellmeister, his child Kristian, baptized in emergency, at St. Nicholas No. 245 at the Judenplatz was inspected [as having died] of spasms right fter his birth. Matthäus Rauscher [coroner]

"Kristian" (or "Kristina") was a provisory name for a Christian (i.e. baptized) child which in eighteenth-century Vienna was used in cases of emergency baptisms, as long as the child's real first name was still unknown. When the above entry was made, the coroner of the Totenbeschreibamt did not know the name and the sex of the child yet and simply followed his instructions. Not surprisingly, the death of Mozart's child was not reported in the Wiener Zeitung. What follows are four examples of similar entries in eighteenth-century Vienna death records.

[Den 10 Oktober 1763]

Stadler Joseph ein Schuhmacher sein Frau[en] ge- / tauftes Kind Christian, ist auf der / Windmüll beÿn Grün Thor an d.[er] / Frais b[e]sch[au]t word[en] nachmittag um / 4 uhr Gebohr[en] word[en] J:[ohann] C:[hristian] B:[aldamuß] (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 57, S, fol. 74v).

This short-lived Christian Stadler was a younger brother of the legendary clarinet players Anton and Johann Nepomuk Stadler. An example from the death records of the Vienna Schotten parish:

Den 30 dito [November 1709] deß Herr[n] Johann / Baptist Hilverting Comedianten / Brincipal, sein Nothgetauftes Kind Christian, in dem Ballhauß, in der / [T]ainfaltstr[aßen]     15 [Kreuzer] (A-Ws, Tom. 2, fol. 119r)

The father of this child Christian was the legendary puppeteer and actor Johann Baptist Hilverding, the father of the dancer Franz Anton Hilverding. Here is an example from the 1734 Totenbeschauprotokoll:

[9 November 1734]

Dem Herrn Francisco Alborea, Kaÿ[serlichem] Hof=Musico / sein Kind Christian, ist in Stadtschloßer[ischen] Hauß am Hof frauen Getaufter an der Frais b[e]sch[au]t worden. (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 37, fol. 244r)

Francesco Alborea (b. 1691 in Naples, d. 20 July 1739 in Padua [not in Vienna, as given in every encyclopedia]) was one of the most important cello virtuosi of the eighteenth century. He is frequently confused with his son Francesco, the cellist known as "Franciscello". Here is another, final example from the 1776 records of St. Michael's concerning a female child named "Christina".

[9 January 1776]

Lorenzin Christina / fil:[ia] Ruperti Lorenz / bürg: Schneidermeisters / Cath:[olisch] Zu Maria / Hilf [No.] 8 frau getaufet. (A-Wstm, Tom. 9, p. 187)

When on 17 November 1789 the burial of Mozart's daughter was reported and paid for at the Bahrleiheramt of St. Stephen's (the office that collected burial fees for the Vienna Magistrate), the child's name was still unknown. This resulted in the following entry in the 1789 Bahrleihbuch (which was published for the first time in June 2009 in my article "Mozart's Apartment on the Alsergrund").

Mozart Rub:[rica] 4ta / 2te Class / Pfarr / am / Hofe. / Dem Tit[ulo] Herrn Wolfgang v:[on] / Mozart K:K: Kapellmeister sein / frauget.[auftes] Mädchen, am Juden= / =platz bei St. Nickolai Nro 245. / an d[er] Frais von Mutterleib be = / = schaut, alt – / Im Freÿdhof A:[ußer] Mazlstorf / Bezahlt p [Partheÿen] 1.20. – [Kirche] 30 - / [Summa] 1 f 50 x

Mozart, 4th category, 2nd class, parish Am Hof, a girl baptized in emergency of Herr Wolfgang von Mozart, imperial and royal Kapellmeister, at Judenplatz at St. Nicholas No. 245, was inspected [as having died] of spasms after her birth. In the cemetery beyond Matzleinsdorf, paid 1 f 20 x [the personnel] 30 x [the church] [overall sum] 1 Gulden 50 Kreuzer. (A-Wd, Bahrleihbuch 1789, fol. 377r)

This is one of six documents I published in 2009 that show Mozart as being addressed with the appropriate particle of nobility "von". By now, the Bahrleiher already knew that the child was a girl, but the continuing uncertainty regarding the child's real name is reflected in the index of the particular volume of the payment records where the "fraugetauftes Mädchen" is given as "v:[on] Mozart Kristina".

We would not know the first name of Mozart's second daughter, if not one of its parents had told Johann Herbst, the priest of the parish church Am Hof, that the child's name was Anna.

The entry concerning the obsequies of Mozart's daughter Anna on 17 November 1789 at the parish church "Zu den Neun Chören der Engel" Am Hof: "Dem Herrn Wolfgang von Mozart K. / K. Käpelmeister sein Kind Anna [Lebensjahre] 1 Stund" (A-Wstm, Am Hof, Tom. 1, fol. 48). The picture shows the two halves of the entry whose original goes across two pages.

The first scholar who delved into the Viennese church records related to Mozart's children was the historian Emil Karl Blümml (1881-1925) who in 1919 published an article in the Mozarteums-Mitteilungen entitled "Mozarts Kinder Eine Matrikenstudie" (which in 1923 he published again in his pioneering book Aus Mozarts Freundes und Familienkreis). Commendable as Blümml's work was 94 years ago, his article does not meet present-day standards, because he overlooked several important sources and misunderstood some of the documents he dealt with. Blümml's flawed work became a problem only decades later, when in his 1961 edition of Mozart documents Otto Erich Deutsch decided to spare himself the effort of checking the Viennese church records in favor of a simple reference to Blümml's completely out-of-date article. Deutsch's intriguing aversion to ever step inside a Viennese parish office is one of many reasons why some Viennese Mozart sources remain unpublished to this very day. As far as the name "Kristian" Mozart in the death records was concerned, Blümml had no idea what it meant and showed himself slightly baffled.

Während das kirchliche Protokoll von einem Kinde weiblichen Geschlechtes spricht, verzeichnet das amtliche Beschauprotokoll der Stadt Wien unterm 16. November 1789 einen Knaben. Wer hat demnach recht? Es sei nur bemerkt, daß der Name Christian bei Katholiken zu den Seltenheiten gehört.

While the entry in the parish register speaks of a girl, the official register of deaths of the City of Vienna for 16 November 1789 lists a boy. Which, then, of the two entries is correct? It should be mentioned that the name "Christian" is rare among Catholics.

© Dr. Michael Lorenz 2013. All rights reserved.

Updated: 5 June 2020

Antonio Salieri's Early Years in Vienna

Antonio Salieri had not turned sixteen by the time he arrived in Vienna on 15 June 1766, together with his discoverer and mentor, the composer Florian Gassmann. Gassmann had met Salieri in Venice and decided to take him to Vienna as a pupil. This was the beginning of an eight-year-long father-son relationship which lasted until Gassmann's death in 1774. Salieri's first memory of his stay in Vienna was being taken by Gassmann to the Italian Church of Mary of the Snows (the translation of Mosel's text of Salieri's memoirs presented in this blog post is Alexander Wheelock Thayer's):

And here I cannot pass over one circumstance which always floats in my grateful memory. The day after my arrival in the capital, my master took me into the Italian church to offer there my devotions. As we were going home he said to me, "I thought it my duty to begin your musical education with God. Now it will depend upon you whether its results shall be good or bad. I shall at all events have done my duty."

Right after his arrival in Vienna, Salieri began intensive studies under Gassmann's supervision. An Italian priest gave him lessons in Latin and Italian poetry and he also studied German and French. A musician gave Salieri lessons in basso continuo playing, score reading, and violin, and Gassmann himself tought Salieri counterpoint based on Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum. Since I like to answer questions that nobody has ever posed, I tried to figure out where Salieri lived in Vienna between his arrival and his wedding. This task is easier than it seems, because until Gassmann's death, Salieri always lived with his teacher. To follow Salieri's traces during his early years in Vienna, therefore amounts to research on Gassmann's life and residences at that time.

Florian Leopold Gassmann, engraving from 1815 by Heinrich Eduard Winter for his collection Portraite der berühmtesten Compositeurs der Tonkunst (A-Wn, PORT_00155577_01)

The earliest of his Viennese addresses that Salieri remembers is "an old house by the so-called Wasserkunstbastey before whose windows lay a marvellous view of the widespread suburbs." The Wasserkunstbastei was a part of the southern city walls between the old Kärntnertor and the Stubentor. The exact house overlooking the Wasserkunstbastei where Gassmann and Salieri lived cannot be identified.

The Wasserkunstbastei between the new and the old Kärntnertor (on the left) and the Stubentor (on the right) on Carl Wenzel Zajicek's copy of Emil Hütter's 1858 panorama of Vienna's fortification (Wien Museum, I.N. 95171). Right behind the center bastion is the tower of the Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky palace.

The same area on the model of old Vienna at the Wien Museum.

At the time of Gassmann's marriage in 1768, he and Salieri had moved to the suburb of Josephstadt, into the house "Zur goldenen Säule" ("The Golden Column", today Josefsgasse 8). Their landlord was the upholsterer Nicolaus Heurteur. This move was related to Gassmann's father-in-law having lived in the Josephstadt for at least thirty years. On 22 September 1768, Gassmann married Barbara Dam, daughter of the I. & R. hosier Franz Dam.

On the right Salieri's and Gassmann's 1768/69 residence, the house Josephstadt 52, "Zur goldenen Säule". This house was built in 1708, and torn down in 1910. In the background the house Josephstadt 64, "Zum grünen Strauß" (today Lange Gasse 10, torn down in 1903) where in 1749, Gassmann's wife was born. On the left is the Palais Auersperg (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan).

The entry concerning Florian Gassmann's and Barbara Dam's wedding on 22 September 1768 in the Schottenkirche (A-Ws, Tom. 32, fol. 196r)

præstito utriuß / iuramento Cop.[ulavi] / P. Lambertus / 22 Sept. 768. / 103.
Der HochgeEhrte H[err] Florianus Gaißmann Kaÿ[serlicher] Com- / positor L.[edigen] St.[andes] auß Böhmen von Brix gebürtig, wohnhaft / in der Joseph Stadt beÿ der goldenen Säulen, des H. / Johann Gaißmann eines Bürgl. Goldschmid, und Evæ / beeden seel.[ig] ehelicher Sohn: nimmt Zur Ehe die E.[hrn-] und T.[ugendreiche] / Jgfr. Barbara Dämin von hier gebürtig, wohnhaft in / Kaÿl. Äschernäl des H. Franz Däm eines Kaÿl. Musici / Hof-Strumpf-Würkers, und Barbaræ beeder noch im / Leben eheliche Tochter.
Sponsus 3 annis viennæ
Sponsa Semper in Parochia. dispensati copulantur / præstito utriuß iuramento.
Testes: H. Joseph Tränni Hof-Musicus.
            H.            Taüber Hof-Musicus.

The third page of Florian Gassman's marriage contract which was signed on 24 September 1768 (A-Whh, OMaA, 74-770)

Barbara Dam lived at the imperial armory, im Elend 346. The court violinists Joseph Trani and Matthäus Teyber officiated as witnesses. The "resigned predicate of nobility" assigned to Dam in the literature is pure fiction.

The entry concerning the publishing of the banns on 11 October 1744, for the wedding of Gassmann's parents-in-law Franz Joseph Dam (1707–1773) and Anna Barbara Stadler (Maria Treu, Tom. 1, 587)

The entry concerning the birth of Gassmann's future wife Anna Barbara Dam on 16 April 1749 (Maria Treu, Tom. 2, 481)

d[en] 16. Ist v P. Innoc.[enz] g.[etauft] w.[orden] Anna Barb. Pat[er] Franz Jos. Dam / bürgl Seiden Strümpf Würker in grün Straussen / Mat Anna Barb. Ehw.[eib] g[e]V[atterin] Anna Barb. Windischin. / Heb[amme] Schillingerin. / f

In summer of 1769, Gassmann and Salieri still lived in the Josephstadt which is proved by the baptism of Gassmann's only, and previously unknown son Franz Michael on 21 July 1769, in the Piarist Church of Maria Treu.

The entry concerning the baptism of Florian Gassmann's first child Franz Michael on 21 July 1769 (Maria Treu, Tom. 2, 575)

The child's godfather, the wealthy court jeweller Franz Michael von Smitmer (1701–1782), signifies Gassmann's generally excellent social connections to members of Vienna's upper-class. The Gassmann family and Salieri now moved back to the city to the "Schmidisches Haus" on the Mölkerbastei where Gassmann's son Franz died of "Zahnfraß" (toothing cramps) on 15 August 1770.

The entry in the municipal death register concerning the death of the child Franz Gassmann on 15 August 1770 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 64, CGK, fol. 42r)

The "Schmidisches Haus" No. 88 (named after its former owner, the canvas trader Matthäus Schmid), together with the "Marinonisches Haus", was one of the two predecessor buildings of the "Pasqualatihaus" (built in 1797) which today houses the only extant residence of Beethoven in the inner city.

Salieri's residence in 1770: the "Schmidisches Haus" No. 88 on the Mölkerbastei (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan)

Court payment records from 1772 (unearthed by John Rice) show that at that time Gassmann and Salieri lived in the "neues Häusel an der Bürger Spittal Kirche" ("the new house beside the church of the civic hospital"). This building was located in the so-called Komödiengassel, east of the church St. Clara opposite the Kärntnertortheater.

The area between the Wasserkunstbastei (upper left) and the Bürgerspitalskirche and the Kärntnertortheater (the orange colored "Comedihaus" at the upper right) on the 1710 Steinhausen map. The small garden left of the church marks the future location of Stadt 1068, the "neues Häusel an der Bürger Spittal Kirche". The vertical street is the Kärntnerstraße (A-Wsa, Kartographische Sammlung, Akt 3.2.1.1.P1.234).

Gassmann's and Salieri's residence in 1772: the house Stadt 1068 beside the Bürgerspitalkirche (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan)

In this house Gassmann's first daughter Anna Barbara (whose name and year of birth are given incorrectly in New Grove, MGG and the Österreichisches Musiklexikon) was born on 23 July 1772. Her godfather was Gassmann's Venetian patron Leonardo Venier whom (based on Joseph Sonnleithner's 1795 Theater-Almanach) The New Grove misnames "Count Leonardo Veneri". Venier was substituted at the baptism by the court physician Dr. Joseph Quarin.

The birth certificate of Anna Barbara Gassmann (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A3, 589/1799)

After her father's death, Anna Barbara Gassmann was to receive singing lessons from Salieri (paid for by the court) and, like her younger sister, became a "k.k. Hofsängerin" of repute.

A certificate, written on 4 October 1787, by Salieri, concerning the singing lessons of the Gassmann sisters (A-Whh, OMeA 1749/1787)

On 3 October 1816 (A-Wd, Tom. 83b, fol. 331), Barbara Gassmann married the court violinist Peter Fux (1753–1831). Her "second father" Salieri, of course, signed her marriage contract as witness.

Anna Gassmann's and Salieri's seals and signatures on Peter Fuchs's 1816 marriage contract. Peter Fux, who was born on 22 January 1753 in Vienna (St. Ulrich, Tom 27, fol. 288r) (and not in Bohemia, as [as of 2020] is claimed by Andrea Harrandt in the flawed Österreichisches Musiklexikon), son of a mason from Passau, was one of the leading Austrian violin virtuosos of his time. His first wife had been Johanna Gsur, daughter of Tobias Gsur (1725–1794), who in 1774, had unsuccessfully applied for Gassmann's post as Hofkapellmeister (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A10, 369/1831).

According to Joseph Sonnleithner's biographical sketch, Florian Gassmann died of long-term effects of a carriage accident he had suffered during one of his stays in Italy. Gassmann seems to have broken two ribs that punctured his lung and caused fluid to accumulate in the pleural cavity. The cause of death given in the records is "Brustwassersucht" (hydrothorax). The date of Gassmann's death given in the literature is generally wrong and inconsistent. In her article in the MGG encyclopedia, Andrea Harrandt even manages to provide two different dates of Gassmann's death, both of which are false.

The entry concerning Florian Gassmann's death in the municipal death register (A-Wsa, TBP 68, fol. 6r). The initials "A: H:" at the end of the entry refer to the municipal coroner Anton Hochmayr.

Gassmann died on 21 January 1774 (the date given by Pohl is also wrong), at 10 p.m., in the house of Count Kraft Ernst von Oettingen-Wallerstein (1748–1802), at Stadt No. 206 (today's building dating from 1852 at Strauchgasse 3).

Gassmann's place of death, the house Stadt 206 (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan)

Gassmann was buried on 23 January, at 4 p.m., in the "Montserrater Gottesacker", a cemetery on the Alsergrund. His lavish burial cost 150 fl 25 x. We don't know if Salieri continued living in the household of Gassmann's widow. On 1 April 1774, Barbara Gassmann gave birth to a filia posthuma ("Pater Florianus Leopoldus Gäßman K:K: Kapellmeister . jam defunctus.") who was christened Maria Theresia Josepha, and whose godmother – out of pity for the widow – was Empress Maria Theresia (substituted by her chambermaid Theresia Kögler).

Therese Gassmann's baptismal entry (A-Ws, Tom. 38, fol. 108v). The claim that Theresia Gassmann was a godchild of Haydn, presented by Karl Geiringer in his book Haydn: A Creative Life in Music, is false.

Because the information given in the baptismal records is inconclusive, Therese Gassmann's place of birth cannot be identified. The address "am Salzgrueß N. 307" cannot be correct, because 307 marked the municipal office building of the Unterkammeramt which was not located on the Salzgries, but am Hof.

Therese Gassmann's birth certificate (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A3, 589/1799)

Therese Gassmann was to become a prominent high coloratura soprano who regularly performed at the two court theaters. In 1797, she was soloist for the première of Haydn's Die Sieben letzen Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze and in 1801, she sang the Queen of the Night at the first production of Die Zauberflöte at the Kärntnertortheater.

Therese Rosenbaum, née Gassmann in 1802 as Königin der Nacht (A-Wn, PORT_00157342_01)

On 11 June 1800, at 6 a.m. (A-Wd, Tom. 80, fol. 20), Therese Gassmann married Joseph Carl Rosenbaum (1770–1829), a secretary to Count Carl von Esterházy (Harrandt's claim in MGG that Rosenbaum was a secretary of a "Prinz Esterházy" is false). Of course, Gassmann's "second father", guardian, and singing teacher Salieri served as her bridesman.

The signatures on Joseph Carl Rosenbaum's and Therese Gassmann's marriage contract. The undersigned are: Theresia Gassmann, the groom, the mother of the bride Barbara Gassmann, Rosenbaum's employer Count Carl von Esterházy, Count Adam von Abensberg und Traun, and Antonio Salieri "come tutore, e pregato testimonio". (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A10, 636/1829)

On 7 February 1774, "in recognition of his proficiency and skill in music and his accomplishments in various compositions", Salieri was given a post with the I. & R. chamber ensemble that Gassmann had held and which was endowed with an annual salary of 100 ducats.

The entry in the protocol of the Obersthofmeisteramt concerning Salieri's appointment to Kammer-Kompositor on 7 February 1774 (A-Whh, OMeA, Prot. 37, fol. 251v and 252r)

Soon after this appointment to Kammer-Kompositor, Salieri must have moved into the "Heiligengeist Haus" No. 316 at the Heidenschuß, a building I have dealt with in a recent post on this blog about Lorenzo Da Ponte. Volkmar Braunbehrens's claim in his biography of Salieri (Munich 1989) that in 1774, Gassmann[!] and Salieri lived together "auf dem Heidenschuß 361[sic] (= Strauchgasse 21)", is false.

Salieri's own short summary of his career at the Vienna court in a file of the Hofkapelle from 1792 (A-Whh, HA HMK Akten 2, 174)

When did Salieri get married? To get a definite and reliable answer to this question from the Salieri literature is surprisingly difficult, and the reasons for this are twofold: a) Salieri himself slightly misremembered the exact chronology of events, and b) all his modern biographers refer to a primary source that they were unable to interpret correctly. This led to all kinds of misunderstandings and resulted in an amazingly contradictory jumble. In his memoirs Salieri clearly states that the courtship of his future wife Therese Helferstorfer and his efforts of gaining the approval of her guardian began in 1775.

In the course of this year I became acquainted with that angel whom God had appointed for my wife. In the year 1775, I gave music lessons to a young Countess who was receiving her education in the nunnery of St. Laurenz, and whom I had instructed before she went thither, at her father's house. In the same cloister other girls, mostly motherless, were boarded. My hour was from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., and before it was finished these girls, accompanied by their guardians usually passed through the music room to the dining hall. On the very first day of my lessons, one of these girls of slender figure, somewhat taller than the others, about eighteen years old and dressed in rose-colored taffeta, made a mighty impression upon me.

Salieri describes his efforts to approach the unknown girl which, after a short time of fear and shyness, were finally successful when he dared to address her in French and was permitted to accompany her on her way from St. Stephen's to her home in the cloister of St. Laurenz (today Fleischmarkt 19). Therese told Salieri that he had not seen her on two occasions in the cloister, because "every Sunday she went to visit her father[!] and her younger brothers". When Salieri's noble pupil fell ill, he was not able to meet Therese at the nunnery and decided to learn more about Therese Helferstorfer's family: "I embraced the opportunity of making inquiries in relation to the father of my beloved. He was an official, honored and respected, dwelling in his own house not far from St. Stephen's." When Salieri finally declared his love to Therese, her father was still alive.

I declared to her that this assurance made me blessed and asked when I might present myself to her father in case she allowed me this step. "A week from today," she said, "I will prepare him for your visit and you shall be well received, for my father already knows you by reputation.''

The fact that Therese's father was still alive during Salieri's courtship, proves that the year "1775" given by Salieri at the beginning of his account of his amorous activities is wrong. His courtship already began in early 1774, or even in late 1773. On 24 January 1774, at 9 p.m., Carl Jacob Helferstorfer (b. 25 July 1722) died of a stroke. When five days before his death, he had his will drawn up, he was already unable to write and had his name signed in his stead by his friend Leopold Hofmann. On the last page of this document Carl Helferstorfer had the following written:

Eighth, I appoint my three children, Maria Theresia, Engelbert, and Johann Baptist universal heirs. Since they are not yet of legal age, however, I ask the most honorable authority to appoint Mr. Leopold Hofmann, Kapellmeister at St. Stephen's, in whom I put my special trust, guardian of my children. At the same time I ask Mr. Hofmann to fatherly take care of my children.

The final page of Carl Helferstorfer' will which on 19 January 1774 was signed in his stead by Leopold Hofmann (A-Whh, OMaA 641-18). The second witness was the paralegal Carl Sebastian Gürsching (1733–1817).

Salieri writes:

However, it was not destined that I should seek my beloved at the hands of her father; that very week God suddenly called frorn this world the worthy old gentleman, beloved by everybody, who had for some time been ailing. [...] Herr von Helfersdorfer had appointed an excellent and rather wealthy man to be guardian of his daughter and two sons, who, a widower of middle age and ignorant of what had passed between his beautiful ward and me had formed the plan of marrying her and soon after the father's death disclosed it to her. Of course there was nothing for Therese to do but declare the state of her feelings and the object of them. As soon as this came to my knowledge, I hastened to the guardian, accompanied by a man of high respectability, and made formal application for the hand of my charmer.

Therese Helferstorfer's guardian Leopold Hofmann, at that time, was also one of the (eventually unsuccessful) applicants for Gassmann's post as Court Kapellmeister. Since the death of his first wife Maria Theresia, née Mayer on 22 October 1772, Hofmann had indeed been a widower, but he soon consoled himself with Anna Kiermayr. daughter of a wealthy goldsmith, whom he married on 2 May 1774 (A-Wd, Tom. 68, fol. 143r. Anna Kiermayr was a grand aunt of Franz von Schober). The "man of high respectability", who accompanied Salieri, was, in my opinion, the renowned physician Dr. med. et phil. Leopold Auenbrugger whose acquaintance Salieri had made when he gave music lessons to Auenbrugger's daughters.

The seal of Leopold Auenbrugger Edler von Auenbrugg (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A2, 3416/1795)

In his article "Antonio Salieris vergessene Familie" (Festschrift Max Schneider, Leipzig, 1955), Robert Haas published Salieri's marriage contract which is dated 10 October 1774. What date for Salieri's wedding do we find in the literature? Wikipedia (as of March 2013) gives 1774 and so does Edward Elmgren Swenson in his 1975 Documentary Biography of Salieri ("On October 10th, 1774, Salieri married Theresa Helfersdorfer and moved into her house."). Rudolph Angermüller actually manages to present three different dates for Salieri's wedding. In the third volume of his book Antonio Salieri. Leben und seine weltlichen Werke (Munich, 1971-74) he adds an additional and uncommented "1775" in brackets to the date on the document. And in vol. 1 of his three-volume collection of documents Antonio Salieri Dokumente seines Lebens (Bad Honnef, 2000), he again presents this contract with the aforementioned date, only to claim four pages later – for quite inexplicable reasons – that Salieri married Therese Helferstorfer on 21[!] October 1774. Volkmar Braunbehrens prefers the year 1774, on the grounds of "rather trusting the Viennese chancery clerks than the ageing Salieri". Of course this reasoning makes no sense at all, since eighteenth-century marriage contracts were not written by chancery clerks. In his 2006 article about Salieri's family in Archiv für Familiengeschichte, Josef Heinzelmann attributes the contradiction to "a typo in Haas's article". John Rice, who of course noticed the inconsistency between the date on the contract and Salieri's own account, writes in his book about Salieri: "According to the wedding contract Antonio married Therese on 10 October 1774. But Mosel, quoting Salieri placed his courtship and marriage in the following year, 1775. How can we explain Salieri's apparent misdating of these crucial events? A simple laps of memory is possible; or did he feel uneasy that his courtship and marriage had taken place so close to the time of Gassmann's death?" The explanation for this confusion is rather simple: Salieri got married on 10 October 1775 and the date on his marriage contract is wrong.

The first page of Salieri's marriage contract (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A10, 752/1807)

The date, seals and signatures on the same document. The bride's witness was her legal guardian Leopold Hofmann, Salieri's best man was Dr. Auenbrugger. The bride's name ends with one single f!)

It is easy to see that the date is written in a different, Italian hand and has obviously been added at some later time. It is the hand of Salieri, who, after the death of his wife in 1807, when he had to submit the contract to the civil court of the Vienna magistrate to claim his right to the inheritance, realized that the document was still undated, misremembered and wrote a wrong year on the contract. After all, 1774 had marked a turning point in his life, when he received a position at court which made it possible for him to marry. The surprising delay of Salieri's wedding until 10 October 1775 seems to have been caused by the distribution of the inheritance of the bride's deceased father. The entry in the marriage records of St. Stephen's Cathedral is quite clear.

oct[o]b[ris] [1]775

Der Wohl Edle H[err] Anton Salieri KK. / würcklicher Kammer Musicus und Compositor / ledig geb in der Statt Legnago zu Venedig. / wohnt 10 Jahr beständig alhier auf der / Freÿung in Bischofhauß. N. 316

Mit der Wohl Edlen Freÿle Theresia / Helferstorferin geb alhier des Karl / Helferstorfer der Ministerial Banco depu- / tation Kanzelist et Katharinæ uxo[ris] bede / seel[ig] Ehl[iche] Tochter wohnt in Lorenzer Kloster

Testes [erant] H[err] Leopold Augenbrucker Medicinæ / Doctor et H[err] Leopold Hofman Kapel M[ei]st[e]r / beÿ St Stephan

Ambo dispen / sati in trinis / denunc.[iationibus] depo / sito libertatis / juramento

Cop[ulati erant] 10 oct[o]b[ris] (A-Wd, Tom. 69, fol. 279v)

[translation:]

The most noble Mr. Anton Salieri Imperial and Royal real chamber musician and composer, a bachelor born in the city of Legnago in Venice, has been living here at the Freyung in the Bishop's house No. 316

With the most noble Miss Theresia Helferstorfer, born here, legitimate daughter of Karl Helferstorfer, chancery clerk of the bank deputation of the ministry, living at the convent of St. Lorenz

The witnesses were Mr. Leopold Auenbrugger doctor of medicine, and Mr. Leopold Hofman capellmeister at St. Stephen's

Both are exempt from three publications of the banns. After having taken an oath of being unmarried they were united on 10 October [1775].

There is obviously a comma missing after "alhier" and thus the claim that the groom had been living at the Bischofhaus for ten years cannot be correct. Salieri had not been living in Vienna for this length of time. His wife Eva Maria Theresia Helferstorfer was born on 22 April 1754, first child of Carl Jacob Helferstorfer, an employee of the bank administration of the ministry of finance. Since her mother Catharina, née Timmer was a granddaughter of the regens chori Mathias Timmer (1662–1742), Salieri's wife was a cousin of Mozart's piano student Josepha Auernhammer.

Seal and signature of Salieri's mother-in-law Catharina Helferstorfer (this is not a double f)

The baptismal entry of Salieri's wife Eva Maria Theresia Helferstorfer (1754–1807). The two godparents from the poorhouse mark the generally close relation of the family to Catholic institutions: Therese's uncle Ignaz Helferstorfer was a librarian at St. Florian Monastery and her younger brother Engelbert was a godson of St. Florian's provost Engelbert Hoffmann. The first two of Salieri's own children also had poor people as godparents (A-Wd, Tom. 80, fol. 289r).

The signature of Salieri's wife, officiating on 25 December 1786, as godmother of Aloys Joseph Zimmer (A-Wstm, Am Hof, Tom. 1, fol. 45)

The problems that led to the misdating of Salieri's wedding can be summarized as follows:

• Robert Haas actually mentioned the correct date of Salieri's wedding in passing, but since he obviously consulted none of the primary sources himself (those were the days when archivists were willing to oblige to requests submitted by mail or phone), he didn't publish the most reliable source concerning the date of Salieri's wedding, namely the entry in the marriage records of St. Stephen's. That Haas actually saw the original of Salieri's marriage contract must be doubted as well. Not only does his transcription (probably provided by the legendarily incompetent Hanns Jäger-Sunstenau) contain over twenty transcription mistakes (such as "anfahenden" instead of "anhofenden", "als" instead of "oder", "Theodoruns"[!] instead of "Leopoldus" – not to mention the absence of several words), it also comes with the revealingly useless shelfmark "Wiener Rathaus". Haas's article is generally flawed and very superficial. His most fundamental error was that he overlooked the pivotal contradiction between the marriage entry and the marriage contract regarding the date of the wedding. Had he explicitly pointed out this inconsistency, many of the following misunderstandings could have been avoided.
• There are good reasons to presume that Edward Elmgren Swenson actually examined the original marriage contract, because his transcription avoids a number of Haas's most glaring mistakes and adds a number of new ones. And yet, Swenson overlooked the main clue in Haas's article and therefore was unable to ascertain the correct date of Salieri's wedding. Not surprisingly, Swenson gives no exact shelfmark of the contract.
• Rudolph Angermüller never tried to check the original of the contract and twice published Haas's transcription with all its mistakes, including the telling location "Wiener Rathaus". Haas's muddled prose even led Angermüller to believe that Salieri's wife died in Eisenstadt. Angermüller's three-volume collection of Salieri documents disregards the entry concerning the composer's wedding at St. Stephen's Cathedral.
• Volkmar Braunbehrens lists Haas's article in the bibliography of his Salieri biography, but he obviously never read it, because he also is unaware of Haas's mention of the correct date.

Together with her younger brothers Engelbert and Johann Baptist Helferstorfer, Theresia Salieri owned the house Stadt 1115 (last numbering 1088, today Spiegelgasse 11, replaced with a new building in 1848) which made it possible for Salieri to live in his own house for the rest of his life. His marriage contract obliged his wife to pay him 500 Gulden a year from her rent and interest revenue.

The "Helferstorferisches Haus" Stadt 1115 on Huber's Vogelschauplan. The Graben is in the foreground (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan)

Salieri's ten-room-apartment in the "Josephinische Steuerfassion". The resident is listed as "H[err] Hauseigenthümer" (house owner). (A-Wsa, Steueramt, B34/5, fol. 107)

The wealth of the Helferstorfer family was based on two premises: a) the estate of Therese Salieri's great-grandfather, the Italian-born hatter Anton Zerleti (d. 3 July 1694) whose widow Sophie (d. 24 October 1737) bequeathed a house to her three grandsons Carl Brentano Castello, Ignaz Innozenz, and Carl Jacob Helferstorfer (son of Georg Marcus Helferstorfer and Catharina, née Zerleti, Salieri's father-in-law); and b) the economic skill of Carl Jacob Helferstorfer who not only in 1752 bought the shares from the two other heirs, but in 1763 also managed to acquire the adjoining building in the Göttweihergasse. By 1771, the two old houses had already been replaced by the new building which on 12 November 1774, eventually became the property of Salieri's future wife and her two brothers. After the death of Salieri's wife, the house in December 1808 went to Engelbert and Johann Baptist Helferstorfer and "vier Salierische Kinder" (four Salieri children).

Seal and signature of the "v[on] Helferstorferische Erben" (the "von Helferstorfer heirs as owners of the house Stadt No. 1154") from 1818 (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A3, 415/1818)

In 1828, Salieri's eldest daughter Franziska Thrier sold her share to her siblings. In 1837, after the death of Engelbert Helferstorfer in 1822 and the death of Franziska Xaveria Salieri, the house became joint property of Johann Baptist Helferstorfer and his nieces Katharina Rumfeld, née Salieri (1788–1849) (a goddaughter of Caterina Cavalieri) and her sister Anna (1784–1868) who in 1844, gave her share to her brother-in-law Philipp Rumfeld and his son Eduard.

The signatures of Susanne Wagner, Katharina Rumfeld, Anna Salieri, and Philipp Rumfeld (representing his minor son Eduard) on the 1846 contract concerning the sale of the remaining shares of the house Stadt 1088 to Susanne Wagner (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A3, 230/1842). The seal is that of the lawyer Dr. Theobald Rizy.

In 1836, Johann Baptist Helferstorfer bequeathed his half of the house to his housekeeper Susanne Huber (1806–1880), whom, shortly before his death, he had adopted, together with her brother August. On 25 July 1837, Susanne Huber-Helferstorfer (as she now called herself) married the notary Simon Rudolf Wagner (1800–1846) (St. Augustin, Tom. 11, fol. 13).

The crypt of Otto Wagner's family in the Hietzing cemetery where Salieri's brother-in-law Johann Baptist Helferstorfer is buried as well. On the headstone his name is incorrectly given as "von Helffenstorfer".

Simon Wagner and his wife Susanne, who in 1846, after a bitterly fought lawsuit (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A5, 1722/1844), bought the remaining 2/6 of the house from Philipp Rumfeld, were the parents of the famous Austrian architect Otto Wagner. Thus, Wagner's studies of architecture were basically funded by the estate of Antonio Salieri's relatives. But this is a completely different story.

Salieri's signature on his will written on 8 October 1823 (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A10, 254/1825)

© Dr. Michael Lorenz 2013. All rights reserved.

Updated: 29 November 2023

Light on Vincenzo Calvesi's Origin

After having performed in various Italian cities and in Dresden, on 20 April 1785, the Roman tenor Vincenzo Calvesi appeared for the first time on the stage of Vienna's Burgtheater. He sang the role of Sandrino in Paisiello's opera Il re Teodoro in Venezia. Two days earlier, his wife Teresa had sung Baronessa Doralice in Guglielmi's Le vicende d'amore.

A note in the Wiener Zeitung of 23 April 1785 about the first appearances of Vincenzo and Teresa Calvesi ("a couple of newly arrived singers") at the K.K. Hoftheater

Vincenzo Calvesi was one of the best and most popular lyric tenors of his time. Several contemporaries praised his exquisit singing. Count Zinzendorf, who in 1779 heard Calvesi perform in Trieste in Salieri's La scuola de' gelosi, wrote: "The mezzo carattere Calvesi enchanted everyone in the aria 'A me parche il mondo sia' [...] Calvesi has a silvery tenor voice, and he enunciates with astonishing clarity." One of Calvesi's Viennese admirers wrote: "Calvesi is certainly one of Italy's best tenors, who combines with a voice that is naturally sweet, pleasant, and sonorous [une voix naturellement douce, agréable et sonore] a technique that, without being too refined and studied, cannot but please our audience." Except for a one-year engagement in Naples in 1788/89, Calvesi sang in Vienna for nine years. He earned praise for his interpretation of mezzo-carattere roles in operas such as Martín y Soler's L'arbore di Diana and Salieri's Axur, re d'Ormus and also took part in several performances of oratorios (such as Dittersdorf's Ester or Kozeluch's Moisè in Egitto) for the benefit of the Tonkünstler-Sozietät. The climax of his artistic career – and his earning immortality – came in 1790, when he created the role of Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte.

A silhouette of Vincenzo Calvesi by Hieronymus Löschenkohl (Wien Museum, I.N. 168215)

Between 1787 and his sojourn in Naples in 1788, Calvesi lived in the house Stadt No. 137 on the Kohlmarkt near the Burgtheater where for 370 florins a year he rented a five-room apartment on the fourth floor (A-Wsa, Steueramt B 34/1, fol. 187).

3ter Stock.

3. 5 Zimmer, Küche, 1 Speis Holzge-
wölb und Boden, H[err] Vinzenz
Kalwesi K.K: Theatralsänger.       370 – [fl]    3/ d°

The house Stadt 137 on the Kohlmarkt at the lower right. At the upper left is the Burgtheater, in the center the tower of St. Michael's (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan).

According to Wikipedia (as of 2013), "the exact place and time of Calvesi's birth, his musical education, and the details of his youth are now unknown." The generally flawed Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia does not even have an article on Vincenzo Calvesi. Based on the discovery of a collection of Dresden and Vienna librettos in the library of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, which seem to originate from Calvesi's circle, John Rice has made a sound case for Rome as Calvesi's place of birth (Rice 2004, p. 432). This presumption can now be confirmed by a previously unknown Viennese source. Vincenzo Calvesi's younger brother Giuseppe (b. 1763) was also active as singer in Vienna. After having performed in London and in Versailles in the seasons 1787/88 and 1788/89, he joined the Viennese opera buffa troupe for the following theater year, and on 15 July 1789, debuted at the Burgtheater as Don Fabio in Cimarosa's Il falegname. Giuseppe Calvesi not only sang tenor roles, such as Don Berlicco in Paisiello's Le gare generose, he sometimes also performed baritone roles, an achievement that seems to have been impossible for his elder brother. In 1787, in London, he sang Teodoro, a role that had been created three years earlier by the baritone Stefano Mandini. This vocal range resembles the versatility of the legendary Austrian tenor Franz Wild (1792–1860) whose repertory covered the roles of both Don Ottavio and Don Giovanni. Unlike his brother, whose place of birth is never mentioned in the surviving Burgtheater records, Giuseppe Calvesi left an immediate documentary footprint in Vienna: he got married there. That the entry concerning his wedding has previously been overlooked, was obviously caused by the fact that in the index of the marriage register the groom is listed as "Joseph V.[on] Kalvessi". On 24 August 1789, two weeks before their wedding, the opera singer Joseph Calvesi and his fiancée Anna Baroness von Seltenhof appear for the first time in the marriage records of St. Stephen's Cathedral. The entry (of which I present the earlier of two existing copies) finally sheds light on the identity of the parents of the Calvesi brothers.

24.[August] Der ho[c]hEdelgebohrne H[err] Joseph / v[on] Kalvesi Operist am k k. Thea / ter, gebürthig von Rom. des / Bernard v. Calvesi päbstlichen / Kamerdieners, und Anna Maria / ux.[oris] gebohrnen Petrelli beider / lebender ehl.[icher] Sohn.

Am Kohlmarkt / in der Bogner / gasße N°: 226

1 [katholisch] 26 [Jahre] 1 [ledig]

The honorable and noble Mr. Joseph von Kalvesi, opera singer at the Imperial and Royal theater, born in Rome, legitimate son of Bernard von Calvesi, papal chamberlain and his wife Maria Anna née Petrelli.

Fr[äu]le Anna Sensen / Baronesse v Söltenhof / gebürthig von Jitschin / in Böhmen. Des H. Ferdinand Sensen / Freyherr v Sölten / hof und Theresia / Anna ux. gebohrene / v Schimeck beider / lebender ehl: / Tochter

S. Stephans / pfarr / N° 1120

1 [katholisch] 16 [Jahre] 1 [ledig]

Test.[is] Sp[o]nsi / Joseph Weiß mp / Reg[ierun]gs Sekretär / und Ober Polizeÿ / Directors Adj[unct] / M[atthäus] Jos[eph] Kuppitsch mp / der Rechte Doctor / auch Hof und G[eric]hts / Advokat.

Pater Sp[o]nsæ adfuit / et consensit. / Dispensati in / 3[bus] den.[untiationibus] / Sponsus dispensatus / a lit.[tera] bapt.[ismali] / Cop.[ulati] 7 Sept. / Messessner[sic]

Ms. Anna Sensen Baroness von Seltenhof, born in Jičín in Bohemia, legitimate daughter of Ferdinand Sensen von Seltenhof and his wife Theresia Anna née von Schimeck, both alive.

Witness of the groom: Joseph Weiß, government secretary and assistant of the head of the police, Matthäus Joseph Kuppitsch, Doctor of Law and advocate.

The bride's father was present and consented. Exempt from three publications of the banns. The groom is exempt from providing his birth certificate. [The couple] was united on 7 September [1789] by [reverend Valentin] Messesner
[A-Wd, Trauungsrapular 1784-89, fol. 396. This register has never been digitized. A later copy of this entry appears in A-Wd, Tom. 77, fol. 83. The index of the earlier Rapular was erroneously glued into Tom. 77, bearing the note "Gehört zu Band 77 (1788-92) andre Zahlen aber gleiche Personen".]

Giuseppe Calvesi lived in the house Stadt 226 (torn down in 1901, today part of Bognergasse 1) which belonged to the pewterer Judas Thaddäus Ribola whose workshop – contrary to information sometimes given in the Mozart literature – in 1791 was not located "close to Count Deym's art gallery".

Thaddäus Ribola's house No. 226 in the Bognergasse. St. Peter's Church and part of the Graben are on the left (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan).

Since Giuseppe Calvesi was not yet in Vienna in 1788, his name does not appear in the Josephinische Steuerfassion (the 1787/88 municipal tax register). We can presume that Giuseppe was born in Rome around 1763 and baptized at St. Peter's Basilica. Anna von Seltenhof was the daughter of a member of the Austrian military, cavalry captain Ferdinand von Seltenhof who in 1780, is listed as a member of the Prague freemason lodge "Zum grünen Löwen". By 1785, Seltenhof had already moved to Vienna, because his son Carl von Seltenhof, who in the 1820s was employed at the Bergwesensadministrationscasse (the treasury of the mining administration), was born there on 14 November 1785. On 11 June 1800, Baron Ferdinand von Seltenhof substituted Count Carl von Esterházy as best man at the wedding of Joseph Carl Rosenbaum and the singer Therese Gassmann (A-Wd, Tom. 80, fol. 20). In 1789, Anna von Seltenhof lived at No. 1120 on the Graben, a house that belonged to Franz von Mack (1730–1807), court jeweller and owner of Kalksburg, Mauer and Speising. Calvesi's best man was Joseph Weiß (b. 1745) who at that time was the secretary of Franz Anton Beer, head of Vienna's police. Weiß's acquaintance with Giuseppe Calvesi may have been related to the fact that – like Mozart – Weiß was a member of the lodge "Zur neugekrönten Hoffnung" (New-Crowned Hope). Weiß was appointed Regierungsrath in 1791 (Wiener Zeitung, 12 Nov 1791, 2905). He died "Oberpolizeydirektor" (head of the police) on 23 November 1794 (Wiener Zeitung, 29 Nov 1794, 3424). In 1797, Weiß's daughter Maria Anna became the second wife of the theater entrepreneur Karl Marinelli (A-Ws, Tom. 39, fol. 53).

Joseph Weiß's seal and signature from 30 March 1790 in a Viennese Verkündakt. The seal is black because Emperor Joseph II had died shortly before.

The bride's witness Dr. Matthäus Joseph Kuppitsch (b. Ljubljana 1755, d. Vienna, 1 February 1817) was the father of Matthäus Balthasar Kuppitsch (1796–1849), the founder of a well-known Viennese bookshop. (That this shop was already established in 1789 is a well-intended myth which I have recently debunked).

Two weeks after his wedding, Giuseppe Calvesi appeared as Biscroma in a performance of Axur, re d'Ormus at the Burgtheater, together with his elder brother. In 1790, Giuseppe left Vienna for an engagement in Moscow. His wife seems to have accompanied him. On 17 January 1798, her name turns up again in an official announcement in the Posttägliche Anzeigen in the Wiener Zeitung, regarding a lawsuit that had been filed by the Viennese tradesman Abraham Hierschel whom Anna Calvesi owed 450 Gulden plus interest and legal fees. She was summoned to a hearing at court which was scheduled for 27 February 1798, and was informed that "in case of her non-appearance at court she would only have to blame herself for the legal consequences."

The summons of Anna Calvesi "gebohrne Baronin v. Seltenhof" in the Posttägliche Anzeigen of the Wiener Zeitung of 17 January 1798. Because the ONB digitized incomplete copies of the Wiener Zeitung, this entry is not available online. This summons was published again in the regular issue of the Wiener Zeitung on 20 January (p. 205), and on 31 January 1798 (p. 305f.).

Anna Calvesi had left the Austrian monarchy for good and did not show up at the hearing. On 2 February 1798, the Vienna municipal court passed the following verdict.

                                                 Urtheil
Von dem Magistrate der e[tc] wird in der Rechtssache des Abraham Hirschl unter Vertrettung H[errn] D[oktor] Sarchi Klägers wider die Anna Calvesi und dem derselben aufgestellten H Curat[or] absentis H D[oktor] Winterhalter wegen gebettenen Abfüh[rungs] Auflage schuldiger 450 f samt Inter[essen] und des Ersatzes der G[erichts] K[osten] über das auf Schuldgeständniß des contra der Geklagten heute geschlossenen mündlichen Verfahrens heute zu Recht erkannt:
Die Anna Calvesi sey dem Kläger die von diesem in der unterm 28ten Novem[ber] 797 überreichten Klage auf einen Schuldschein dd 1t July 795 angeforderten 450 f samt 4% vom 1t Novem[ber] 795 zu berechnenden Inter[essen] und den in dieser Rechtssache verursachten mit Einschluß der Urtheilstaxen auf 21 f 48 x gemäßigten G[erichts] K[osten] binnen 14 Tagen nach jenem der Zustellung dieses Urtheils bey sonstiger Exekuzion abzuführen schuldig.
Wien den 2t Hornung 798.

The second page of the 1798 verdict of the municipal civil court in the case Hirschl vs. Calvesi (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A5, 259/1798)

Vincenzo Calvesi remained in Vienna and continued to perform there. On 9 March 1793, he took part in a concert at the Kärntnertortheater (Wiener Zeitung, 6 March 1793, 591) for the benefit of Francesco Bussani and his wife. At the same time, he submitted a petition to the court to be kept as primo tenore at the opera, supposedly revoking his own declared intention to leave Vienna in spring of 1794. But it was already too late (A-Whh, KA KK Protokoll 114, No. 1928). The court had already reengaged Domenico Mombelli and Giuseppe Viganoni for the following seasons. In 1794, the Emperor even denied Calvesi the permission to give a concert for his own benefit (A-Whh, KA KK Protokoll 119, No. 179). Calvesi retired from the stage, went back to Rome and became an opera impresario. Together with Bussani he leased the Teatro Alibert from 1796 until 1805. Until 1811, he was a member of a consortium which ran several theaters in Rome with varying financial success. Like many other singers, who had entered immortality by simply creating a role in one of Mozart's great operas, at some time he simply disappeared from the focus of attention of his contemporaries, and the date of his death is still unknown. Of course, there is still a lot of research to be done regarding the biographies of Mozart's singers. But this cannot be the purpose of a short blog post.

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Bibliography

Rice, John. 2004. "A Libretto Collection from the Circle of Vincenzo Calvesi, Mozart's Ferrando", in: Music Observed. Studies in Memory of William C. Holmes. Warren: Harmonie Park Press, 429-44.

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© Dr. Michael Lorenz 2013.

Updated: 8 September 2023