About the work
The musical by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay was premiered in 1999 at the Theater an der Wien and is the duo's second work after the worldwide success of "Elisabeth". At its centre is not a biographical portrait of Mozart but a psychological interpretation: the conflict between the child-prodigy genius Wolferl and the grown man Wolfgang Amadeus.
Plot
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is exploited by his father Leopold as a child prodigy and paraded across Europe. As an adult he tries to free himself from his father and the Salzburg prince-archbishop, moves to Vienna, marries Constanze Weber and attempts to live as an independent artist. He is haunted by "Amadé" — his childlike alter ego, who drives him to ever greater musical feats while consuming his vital force. Amid composition, debts, family tensions and social disappointments, Mozart works himself to death. With his last strength he writes the Requiem before collapsing.
Cultural significance
Mozart! has been staged in ten countries and is regarded, after Elisabeth, as the most important German-language musical of the turn of the millennium. The double casting of Wolferl/Wolfgang by an actor and a child became the production's trademark and demands choreographic precision. Levay's music blends a pop idiom with reminiscences of Mozart quotations without lapsing into imitation. The work became a particular phenomenon in Japan, where productions in the Takarazuka Revue attained cult status.