{"id":1104,"date":"2011-04-26T09:59:05","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T13:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/?p=1104"},"modified":"2011-04-26T09:59:05","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T13:59:05","slug":"separating-mozart-from-amadeus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/2011\/04\/26\/separating-mozart-from-amadeus\/","title":{"rendered":"Separating Mozart from “Amadeus”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor of music and lecturer for the core Roye E. Wates recently published a book covering the reality and fiction surrounding Mozart, titled Mozart: An Introduction to the Music, the Man and the Myths<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Wicked Local interviewed Professor Wates on the book, and it sheds some insight into how Amadeus may be more hurtful than helpful to the reality of Mozart and his father’s relationship to him:<\/p>\n

Wates says the book was needed because there\u2019s so much misinformation about Mozart, in part because of the popular film \u201cAmadeus<\/a>.\u201d In both the book and our conversation, Wates makes it clear that the music world owes a debt of gratitude to Mozart\u2019s father, Leopold Mozart, a brilliant man who home-schooled Mozart, \u201cengaged his son\u2019s imagination,\u201d and devoted himself to the career of his child genius.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

If you recommended one of Mozart\u2019s operas to a first-time listener, which one would it be and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of two. In my own teaching, \u201cDon Giovanni\u201d makes an immediate and powerful impact. You don\u2019t have to know about opera to enjoy it. The story is about Don Juan. Every woman has had to deal with a Don Juan, and every man wants to be one. So there\u2019s a connection to this fascinating mythological character. And Mozart\u2019s portrayal of him is irresistibly charming, and at the same time terrifying. And, interestingly, the lead character has no arias that explain who he is. Some people regard that as a flaw. Others say that\u2019s perfect; he\u2019s a mystery man.<\/p>\n

My other recommendation is \u201cThe Abduction from the Seraglio.\u201d I taught it one year, and it turned out to be a really good introduction to what opera is about. The music is beautiful, and it\u2019s very touching at the end.<\/p>\n

If you were on a desert island and you could only have one piece of Mozart music, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Marriage of Figaro.\u201d (Pause) And the Mass in C Minor. Both of those have a good deal of Mozart\u2019s pastoral music, which I believe was his most distinctive personal idiom. The way Mozart wrote pastoral music was unlike any other, except Bach. It\u2019s so powerful and so moving that I\u2019m not sure I could live without it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can read the full story here<\/a>.\u00a0 Is Amadeus doing more harm than good? Or is a bit of over-dramatization okay if it drums up interest?\u00a0 Feel free to comment below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor of music and lecturer for the core Roye E. Wates recently published a book covering the reality and fiction surrounding Mozart, titled Mozart: An Introduction to the Music, the Man and the Myths.\u00a0 Wicked Local interviewed Professor Wates on the book, and it sheds some insight into how Amadeus may be more hurtful than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1284,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3860,3838],"tags":[4168,4700,5818],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1105,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions\/1105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}