This entire year, the Austrian capital, Vienna, is celebrating the 250th birthday of the world famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The genius was born in Salzburg on January 27, 1756 and spent his last ten years in Vienna, where he died on December 5, 1791 at the age of 35.
While on the airplane approaching Vienna airport, one is already in the footsteps of the world-renowned Maestro. Below is the St. Marx Cemetery containing the grave of Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus, known as Amadeus Mozart. However, Mozart's alleged last resting place can indeed be passed over quickly since it's actually unknown and his tomb in the graveyard is nothing more than symbolic.
Sightseeing is difficult from above, yet one can see the renowned Vienna State Opera House where, as history tells us, Mozart never celebrated any triumphs during his lifetime.
All year round, except for July and August, the Vienna State Opera House will perform the operas that the Maestro wrote in Vienna—"The Marriage of Figaro," "Don Giovanni," "The Magic Flute," "La Clemenza di Tito," and other major works such as the "Jupiter Symphony and Coronation Mass." The event is just one of the hundreds taking place in Vienna and Salzburg to mark the birthday of a man once described by Goethe as a "miracle that cannot be explained."
Just around the corner from the Opera House, one of the best and most charming places to rest is Café Mozart. The coffee house has little to do with its namesake, but it follows the standard Viennese coffee house design. Chandeliers glitter beneath high ceilings; the furniture is in the proper style; and plenty of daily newspapers lie around exactly as they should. The waiters are real ones, all dressed up in ceremonious black. Attentive without hovering, they often demonstrate a keen eye for human nature and maintain a perfect balance between zealousness and poise.
Café Mozart is a beloved tourist attraction, and there, over the tasty apple strudel and espresso, one can hear such exclamations as "Vienna will always be Vienna!"
Out in the streets of Vienna, Mozart's face is everywhere advertising exhibitions, concerts, guided tours and confectionary clichés. One poster shows the composer rolling his eyes in disbelief at all the fuss. But neither the hype nor the temperature seems to deter determined Mozart fans who painstakingly track the footsteps of the Maestro.
Originating at Café Mozart, every Monday throughout the year, Vienna's tourist guides offer special city walks, which don't require a special appointment, that continue through the streets and courtyards of the old city and end in the rooms of Mozart House, where the composer spent some of his happiest years.
Off we go to call on Mozart's librettist, who wrote the lyrics to the unjustly underappreciated opera "La Clemenza di Tito." This man's current address is Michaelegruft crypt, a labyrinth of dark vaults beneath St. Michael's Church, one of the oldest Churches in Vienna. It is hardly as worthy an abode as the far more famous Imperial Burial Vault, actually a basement at the Capuchin Church, in which 146 aristocrats, including 12 emperors, 19 empresses and queens, all members of the house of Habsburg, have found their last resting place since 1633.
What is infinitely more fun is exploring the Hofburg castle complex right across from St. Michael's Church. Despite the imperial architecture aimed more at instilling awe, we are again on earth among the living which greatly improves our mood.
At the Albertina in this neo-classical Habsburg Palace, Mozart's life and work are presented in a lavish exhibition. From the "Mozart, Experiment – Enlightenment" in the Albertina Graphic Collection, one can get an idea of the connection between the music, architecture and society that Mozart knew.
Mozart's sacred music played an important role in his life's work. St. Stephen's Cathedral, Austria's most eminent gothic edifice, sculpted from 1467 to 1513, was quite important in Mozart's life. There they will give live performances throughout the entire year as a part of liturgies and concerts performed by church musicians and choirs.
Theater an der Wien, a house performing music by and for Mozart, was described as an ideal place for Mozart operas. And long before that, in 1805, it was here that Beethoven conducted the world premiere of his opera "Fidelio." Theater an der Wien, originally a musical theater, will become an opera house in 2006 and will stage more than 80 performances to celebrate the Maestro's birthday.
In the year of his death, Mozart was heavily in debt, but very optimistic nonetheless. His operas were playing to resounding success all over Europe, and this brought him fame, but not the steady job he longed for. Mozart worked feverishly to complete lucrative commissions as quickly as possible to pay off his debts, which had piled up despite his substantial earnings.
We can wrap up our tour in Vienna in Mozart's footsteps with a visit to his last place of residence, now the Steffl department store. Mozart and his family occupied a spacious four-room apartment in a building which stood at this location until 1849. Today only a small memorial and a bust of Mozart dating back to 1849, both on the department store's seventh floor, remain to remind us of this great artist.
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