Text: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart This great Austrian composer was born in Salzburg on 27th January 1756. Mozart is ranked along with Verdi and Wagner as one of the three greatest of all opera composers. A child prodigy, his first stage work, the sacred play written at the age of 11, was Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebotes. In his three great Italian works, written in collaboration with Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart breaks through the rigid structures of opera, presenting music-drama of great fluidity and remarkable human insight. His mastery of extended ensemble, his blending of serious and comic elements; his dramatic insight and his loosening of the musico- dramatic structures all had an incalculable influence on the subsequent development of opera. Wolfgang was educated by his father Leopold Mozart, who was concertmaster in the court orchestra of the archbishop of Salzburg and a celebrated violinist, composer, and author. By the age of six, Mozart had become an accomplished performer on the clavier, violin, and organ and was highly skilled in sight reading and improvisation. Five short piano pieces composed by Mozart when he was six years old are still frequently played. In 1762, Leopold took Wolfgang on the first of many successful concert tours through the courts of Europe, during this period Mozart composed sonatas for the harpsichord and violin, a symphony, an oratorio and the opera buffa La finta semplice - 1768. In 1769 at the age of 13 Mozart was appointed. concertmaster to the archbishop of Salzburg.

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