New York's HERE is presenting a new production of the solo show The Other Mozart, written and performed by Sylvia Milo, June 22-July 12. Directed by Isaac Byrne (Bekah Brunstetter's Green and To Nineveh at American Place Theatre), it features music composed by Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen of the International Contemporary Ensemble.
The story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his older sister Nannerl--that is, the story of the male genius and his sister or wife who might be just as brilliant but never gets the chance--has parallels throughout human history, not to mention in classical music. Fanny Mendelssohn, recognized as brilliant at a young age, was nevertheless told her musicianship could be only "ornamental." Clara Schumann, though an influential and celebrated pianist, was not widely recognized as a composer in her own time even as she worked tirelessly to promote her husband Robert's music (and that of Brahms).
Saddest of all may be the story of Mozart's sister, in the sense that while we have references to her having composed music, none survives. Leopold Mozart took his children touring together for years, and Maria Anna, known as Nannerl, was celebrated as a brilliant musician. A contemporary account in the Augsburger Intelligenz had this to say: "Imagine an eleven-year-old girl, performing the most difficult sonatas and concertos of the greatest composers, on the harpsichord or fortepiano, with precision, with incredible lightness, with impeccable taste. It was a source of wonder to many."
But when Nannerl turned 18 in 1769 Leopold put a stop to her career. Dominated by her father and by society's prevailing attitudes, she not only couldn't pursue a music career, she couldn't even marry the man she fell in love with.
The Other Mozart uses Nannerl's letters and those of her family to ask "How could we have lost the other Mozart?" Set amidst a stunning 18-foot-diameter dress that fills and spills over the whole stage, the show was developed at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC and at the All for One Festival at NYC's Cherry Lane Theatre. It was presented at the Berkshire Fringe in 2013, and in Austria, where it will return in May, invited by the Mozarteum in Salzburg and by Mozarthaus Sankt Gilgen, in the town where Nannerl lived for many years after she got married.
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