Short Guy makes the Big Time

(If you don't like classical music, skip this blog entry.)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote some of the most beautiful music ever created, and his operas are marvelous!. IMHO

But he wasn't a tall handsome guy.  Let me quote some observations from the BBC:

"The composer's face was pock-marked and his self-description was 'Mozart magnus, corpore parvus'  (Great Mozart, small in stature.)"

Once, a Mannheim, Germany theater manager would not let him in to conduct his own work, because he thought that Mozart looked like a "member of the very lowest class."

He was remembered as "a remarkable small man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine, fair hair, of which he was rather vain."

That vanity led him to sport beautiful clothing, lace and watch-chains, and to appear on stage with his crimson pelisse (fur-lined cloak) and gold-laced cocked hat as he conducted his orchestra.  And he loved his wigs.

Mozart produced an enormous amount of work in a very short lifetime. Over 800 musical works in every genre of that time.

Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus Mozart was born in 1756 and died just 35 years later in 1791.

Some of his most favorite musical creations (actually, my favorites):

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik 

(Sidebar:  When I was staying at a house in Koeln, Germany, every single night a neighbor couple would get into a shouting match.  My friends called it Eine Kleine Nachtmusik -- "A little bedtime lullaby.")

REQUIEM - Will make you want to get more religious before you die.

Clarinet Concerto

Visiting his operas will make you feel wonderful.  Here are a few I like:

The Marriage of Figaro  (my favorite)

The Magic Flute  (fun for all)

Don Giovanni (scary but spectacular)

And don't forget to view the movie "AMADEUS."

A little loose with the facts, but wonderfully staged.

I wish Herr Mozart had lived longer, just think of what other miraculous creations he probably would have made for us.

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