Book dossier

Mozart and his operas

by David Cairns

"David Cairns's Mozart, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth, recounts Mozart's life from the perspective of some of his greatest works - the operas. Cairns goes beyond conventional biography to give fresh insight into Mozart's creative process, helping us to understand what was revolutionary about his music in its time and what remains extraordinary about it today." "Cairns traces Mozart's early life as a musical prodigy and shows how the genius grew up, surviving his unnatural childhood to produce works of increasing maturity and originality. He unpicks the many myths surrounding Mozart to show a man who was not, as legend has it, two contradictory beings, sublime artist and clown, but one - a creature no less miraculous than before, but more human." "Using operas as his guide, the book follows the steady deepening of Mozart's musical style, from his coming of age with what Cairns sees as the most romantic and forward-looking of all his operas, Idomeneo, commissioned for the Munich Carnival in 1781; through the three comic operas written with Lorenzo Da Ponte, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte, which display his mastery to the full; and finally to The Magic Flute, the greatest and most complex achievement of his career. The impact of the operas and his instrumental music on each other is subtly assessed, as Cairns shows how familiarity with the operas can transform our perceptions of the whole of Mozart's art."--BOOK JACKET.