ADJOA_ANDOH CHRIS_ADDISON COMM DAVID_MCVICAR EDWARD_GARDNER GOLDA_SCHULTZ JAMES_HAWES JANE_GLOVER KARLA_CROME LUCY_CROW LUCY_CROWE MALE_PRODUCTION_CREW RICHARD_E_GRANT STEPHEN_FRY CHRIS ADDISON At this point, Mozart feels he’s got licence to do anything. There’s a sort of ... a desire to push a boundary. DR. FLORA WILLSON We have to remember, Mozart is a compulsive rule-breaker. There’s a musical anarchist in there. This opera is sticking up two fingers at some of the most powerful elements of his audience. And he’s so arrogant, he’s expecting them to applaud at the end. DAVID MCVICAR Mozart is making extraordinary demands of his audience. He’s risking everything, pushing those boundaries. That’s his genius, but also maybe his downfall. COMM This is the story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A child prodigy, a flawed human, and a composer the like of which the world has never seen. STEPHEN FRY Mozart has some magical touch. He is above and beyond normal mortals. DR. FLORA WILLSON I mean, where would we be without Mozart? He is classical music. COMM Now, with the help of experts, Mozart lovers, and world class musicians ... GOLDA SCHULTZ Take one! COMM ... using his private letters and original manuscripts, it’s possible to piece together who he really was: a man who battled society. ADJOA ANDOH ‘Your world is not this, your world is this’ – that’s it. COMM Battled his family ... STEPHEN FRY You hear his rage against the world: “You must go this way.” “No, I won’t!” “Yes, you will!” “No, I won’t!” COMM ... and ultimately battled himself. CHRIS ADDISON He is complicated, Mozart, and slightly crazy. There’s a grand history of child stars who go off the rails. COMM A genius, who channelled all this to chart the human condition. GOLDA SCHULTZ ‘I’m going to be an artist, regardless of how it is received. I’m still going to create art.’ That’s bad-ass mic drop moment right there. LUCY CROWE Mozart’s music makes us question why we’re put on this earth: What is it all about? It makes us question our existence, I think. DAVID MCVICAR It ... It really is mind-blowing, just how far above that bar Mozart is. COMM Vienna, 1781. Leaving his family behind, twenty-five year-old Mozart has finally broken free from provincial Salzburg to follow his dreams of becoming a great composer. ADJOA ANDOH He’s come to Vienna, and in his head he has the whole time his father going: “What are you doing, boy? Why are you there? Why are you not listening to my instructions? You think you can do this on your own?” And Mozart says: “I will now make my own destiny.” Can he? STEPHEN FRY Vienna in the latter part of the 18th Century – in the 1770s and 80s – is a very cosmopolitan place. It’s one of the great cities of the world. COMM Vienna is the capital city of vast a European Empire. The newly-crowned Emperor, Joseph II, wants to cement his power by turning Vienna into the cultural epicentre of the continent, creating a magnet for aspiring artists like Mozart. CHRIS ADDISON What Mozart wants is to write opera. And he wants to write symphonies, and he wants to write concertos, and he wants to do that for the court of Joseph II. EDWARD GARDNER And I think he arrives in Vienna, thinking he's going to walk into the top job and to great acclaim – he’s a home-grown boy. And instead, he finds a court overrun by Italian composers, and it's clear that he's not going to get a look-in. COMM In 18th Century Europe, Italian Opera is at the height of fashion. And in Vienna, one composer rules the roost: the famous Italian, Antonio Salieri. EDWARD GARDNER In our mind, Salieri is a much older figure. In fact, he’s only six years older than Mozart, but he’s had the court’s composition sewn up for the previous decade. He’s the favourite of the emperor. Mozart is really jealous of the status of Salieri – that exposure and prestige is something Mozart desperately craved. COMM With few contacts in Vienna, Mozart turns to the family of his ex-girlfriend – The Webers. There he gets cheap board and lodgings, and gives piano lessons to make ends meet. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG While he would like to have a cushy court job, he knows he's gonna have to freelance – but he feels as if his talents are being wasted and his life is dripping away. CHRIS ADDISON When you are a feted wunderkind, you assume that this is just your due. The way that you're brought up as a child massively affects your view of the world. And if the world is telling you, through your formative years, ‘Oh, you're the absolute tits,’ then this is not a good way to emerge into adulthood with a psychology that's intact. That's partly why Mozart is so arrogant. COMM Mozart had previously been infatuated with Madame Weber’s older daughter, Aloysia ... COMM ... a beautiful soprano and rising star. But Mozart’s father banned their relationship, and Aloysia moved on. Now, Mozart sets his sights on her younger sister, Constanze. KARLA CROME We might think Constanze is a bit of a wall flower. She’s been in the shadow of her sister, who’s a better singer, more beautiful. COMM Like her sisters, Constanze is a trained singer, with a deep love of music. DR. FLORA WILLSON If you care about music, to be able to share that love with someone else who cares equally – perhaps even more than you do – that's a very powerful thing. KARLA CROME She’s kind, she’s got a generous spirit. Mozart and Constanze, they bring out a fun, playful side in each other. COMM But Mozart is still just a struggling piano teacher. JAMES HAWES His quest, as he says himself, is to meet the Emperor. He says: “I need to get him to know me.” If he can get face-to-face with the man in the high castle, he is just going to blow away all these Italian guys, like Salieri, with their opera. He just needs to get to the right guy. COMM On Christmas Eve 1781, Mozart finally gets the chance to take on the Italian competition. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG Joseph has a bunch of very important ambassadors visiting. He wants to show off the local talent. There's a very famous Italian pianist right now in Vienna, named Muzio Clementi. So, a contest is arranged. JAMES HAWES He’s got a chance to impress the Emperor, face-to-face, on a moment of high artistic and diplomatic importance. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG Clementi specialised in certain aspects of piano technique, doing things on a keyboard that seemed physically impossible. CHRIS ADDISON Clemente turns up, with this astonishing set of technically impossible pieces, and blows everybody away. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG They are prepared acts of virtuosity, that are meant to dazzle. Mozart already had that technique when he was ten years old. CHRIS ADDISON And what Mozart does in response to that is ... I think, shows you everything about him. CHRIS ADDISON He starts to play a French tune that we know as ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’. And you can imagine everybody sitting there going: “What is this? What's going on?” Because all the aristos have taken bets on this battle, about who's gonna win. “Why is ... ? What…?” He gets to the end of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’, and then he starts it again. CHRIS ADDISON He’s looked at Clementi and gone: ‘Sure, that's very impressive – but can you do this? Can you pull music out of the air and just spin it?’ It’s like he’s casting ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ in different roles. At one point, it's a mad dance. And then, suddenly, it's sort of swoony and romantic. And then it’s this weird, baroque waltz. CHRIS ADDISON It's show off-y, it's mischievous, it's sort of experimental. It's sort of Mozart, wrapped up. COMM For the sake of courtly convention, the competition is declared a draw – but it’s clear that Mozart has wiped the floor with his opponent. CHRIS ADDISON Joseph II, the Emperor, pulls him to one side and goes: “Yeah, don't worry about that. You, you won really.” And he gives Mozart two hundred and twenty-five florins, which is one-and-a-half times his annual salary back in the Salzburg days. He must feel extraordinary at that point, because he's pulled this incredible thing off and he's quite dismissive of Clementi. ADJOA ANDOH “Clementi is a charlatan, like all Italians. He has nothing to offer, nothing whatever. He has not the slightest expression, or taste – and even less feeling.” DR. ROBERT GREENBERG “He had no place being in the same room with me.” I mean, it was like Muhammad Ali talking about an inferior opponent. And Mozart was criticised by people for not being a good winner. EDWARD GARDNER It’s quite shocking to court society that he could treat a fellow artist with contempt and disdain. He wasn’t a man of an institution, he didn’t play by the rules, and it's pretty clear that he can't be part of the fabric of a court society. COMM With two hundred and twenty-five florins in his pocket. Mozart’s ambitious landlady sees his potential. KARLA CROME It’s actually Cecilia, Constanze’s mother, who sees an opportunity here for her daughter to wed an up-and-coming musician. JANE GLOVER She's very keen that Constanze should hook up with him and, behind the scenes, is rather pushing them together. And they clearly have a fantastic relationship in the bedroom. COMM Wolfgang is in love. He plucks up the courage to tell his domineering father. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG So, he writes his father and tells him: “You know, Dad, I might be a little guy, but I have the same desires as some big strapping workman – and it just so happens that I’ve met this lovely young woman.” Well, I don't have to tell you how Leopold reacts. He goes Vesuvius once again. He absolutely forbade Mozart from seeing Constanze. RICHARD E GRANT Leopold thinks that Constanze’s family is not good enough, and that Constanze’s mother, somehow she has bewitched his son into marrying her daughter off, and he insults her in the most demeaning way possible. RICHARD E GRANT “Constanze’s guardian and Madame Weber should be clapped in irons and made to sweep the streets, and carry a notice around their necks with the words ‘seducers of youth’.” KARLA CROME “Dearest father, I implore you to give your consent to my marriage with dear Constanze – it is absolutely necessary for the sake of my health and spirits. My heart is restless, and my head is confused.” KARLA CROME Mozart has a choice to make: he either does what his father says, respects his wishes and ends the relationship, or, for the first time, he breaks free and does what he wants to do. COMM Mozart defies his father and goes ahead with the wedding. Leopold is outraged and refuses to attend, or even send his blessing. KARLA CROME The wedding is a very small, modest affair. There's hardly anyone present. DR. FLORA WILLSON For Constanze, marrying Mozart would represent adventure, possibility, ambition. And of course, she was a singer as well. KARLA CROME Constanze’s always been the wallflower, right? And now, she's with this brilliant virtuoso of a musician. She finally feels like she’s independent of her mother and her sisters. COMM For Mozart, marrying Constanze is an act of open rebellion against his father. A year later, there’s still a rift in the family. DR. FLORA WILLSON Mozart and his father haven’t seen each other since Mozart got married. You know, there’s been this push-pull between them for as long as he’s been alive. He desperately needs his father’s approval, as well as wanting to break free of it, so he’s trapped in this kind of tension. And there’s Nannerl as well. COMM Wolfgang isn’t the only sibling to have been scarred by their upbringing. As children, he and his older sister, Nannerl, had been inseparable. She was also a musical prodigy, and they had toured Europe performing as equals. But as adults, Leopold has refused to let Nannerl perform in public. So, while Wolfgang has been given all the opportunities, his sister’s talents have been crushed under domestic drudgery. Mozart can’t stand the rift in his family. He takes his new wife to Salzburg, so they can meet her face-to-face. DR. FLORA WILLSON In-laws visits - that’s always a tricky moment, isn’t it? Constanze’s nervous, Mozart’s nervous. This is a high-stakes moment. KARLA CROME Nannerl is thirty-two, and that means she's a spinster. Her own suitor has been rejected by her father, and here comes her brother with a lovely young wife. They’re deeply in love, and it doesn’t seem fair. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG Leopold is very cold; Nannerl is even colder. Mozart abandoned the family for this, this gold digger? It was a bit of a disaster. COMM The talking hasn’t worked, but Mozart still believes he can bring his family together by turning to the language he’s always been most fluent in. COMM He writes a piece of music to express his love for Constanze. He hopes it will help his family accept her. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG As a wedding gift, Mozart promises Constanze a mass – a musical mass – in which he will feature his wife as a singer. KARLA CROME Constanze wasn't the star – she was in the shadow of her sister – and she's been asked to stand up in front of these in-laws, who have been really cold to her, and perform a solo. It's a huge moment for her. LUCY CROW This piece is remarkable. It's dark, but when she comes in, it's like we finally see the light. LUCY CROW It’s a wonderful feeling, when you sing it. You're the beacon here. You're the beacon of hope, you’re the beacon of love that he obviously felt personified his wife, and it feels immense. COMM Watching her younger brother and his new wife perform so together is a bittersweet experience for Nannerl. KARLA CROME She travelled the world with her brother. They shared this bond of music, and now he's sharing that bond with someone else. This woman has come and usurped her. LUCY CROW I deeply empathise with Nannerl. You know, living your life, and just being reminded constantly of what you could have had and what you could have achieved. You know, she’s there thinking: ‘That could have been me’. COMM The Mass in C Minor is a triumph. But if Mozart think it will bring his family together, he will be disappointed. All Nannerl wrote in her diary was: ‘We went to a performance, it rained.’ It would be the last time she would ever see her brother. COMM Back in Vienna, Mozart is getting impatient for the recognition he feels he deserves – and he’s had enough of sitting around, waiting for a job at court. ADJOA ANDOH “There is no monarch in the world I’d rather serve than the emperor, but I shall not go begging for a post here. I cannot wait around indefinitely. For it is my sense that, even though he is the emperor, I don’t want to be dependent on his favour.” COMM Inspired by the public concerts he’d seen in London and Paris, Mozart now takes a gamble. In a radical departure, instead of waiting to be offered a job at court, he will invite the court to come to him. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG Mozart is an entrepreneur who sees an opening. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG “I'm going to hire instrumentalists to perform, I'm gonna write music for them. I'm gonna get people to subscribe to multiple concerts. Yes, yes! And I’m gonna keep the profits.” And that’s what he does. STEPHEN FRY You've bought your ticket for a subscription concert of Mozart, because you've heard they really are rather the thing – this guy is amazing. JAMES HAWES What Mozart delivers is this incredible synthesis of different elements that make him like no-one's been before. He sets up his concerts with the audience close up to the piano, where he sits commanding the orchestra, but close enough to the audience to wink, to nod, to wave to them. DAVID MCVICAR He is like a modern rock star. He's selling the personality, as much as he's selling his music. STEPHEN FRY This is a human being, just doing things that are impossible. And wow, it gives you a buzz. It's like a drug, almost. COMM Mozart’s gamble pays off. His series of concerts is a sell-out, with even the Emperor himself in attendance. COMM Aged twenty-eight, Mozart is now recognised as the most dazzling composer and showman of his generation. DR. FLORA WILLSON This is a really good moment for Mozart. He's in control – this thing that he's sought the whole time, his whole career to date – and he's enjoying it. COMM With the cash rolling in, Mozart can now indulge himself. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG He grew up touring Europe, visiting palaces. He got to see how the super-rich lived, and he got a taste for it himself. He loved dressing up. He loved all the nice things that someone else's money could buy. CHRIS ADDISON We know that Mozart is quite impulsive. He reminds me slightly of Elvis, in that he spends idiotically once he's got the money. He feels like if he can buy a billiard table that costs twice his salary in Salzburg, then he’s gonna do it. COMM The former child star is finally back where he wants to be: centre stage and in the spotlight. CHRIS ADDISON He and his wife, Constanze, hold these insane parties and become the sort of social centre. They're not elegant and genteel, they are ... tear-ups. STEPHEN FRY It’s a party scene; it's like New York in the Studio 54 days. Mozart is very daft sometimes – very childish – and you see that in his party tricks and wicked jokes. CHRIS ADDISON “Good night! You are quite an ox; Good night, my dear Lotte; Good night, Phooey, phooey…” STEPHEN FRY “Good night, good night, we still have far to go today; Good night, good night, shit in your bed and make it burst…” CHRIS ADDISON “Good night, sleep tight, and stick your arse to your mouth!" It loses a bit in translation. STEPHEN FRY Yeah, he was eccentric. He was, he was out there. He was manic, I think I would say. I think we know enough now about mental health problems to recognise that Mozart had his manic moments. And the nature of bipolar disorder, for example – what used to be called manic depression – is the two sides to it. The mania does allow for an enormous energy, enormous creativity – sometimes excessive. CHRIS ADDISON There’s a compulsion to a genius. There’s a sort of tap that can’t be turned off. And the problem for geniuses like Mozart is finding the outlets. COMM In Vienna, Mozart has surrounded himself with a new musical family, one that includes some of the greatest performers of his day. Among them is a horn player, Joseph Leutgeb. Together, they form a partnership that will prove legendary. DR. FLORA WILLSON They have this very interesting friendship, where it’s basically built on a solid foundation of piss-taking. COMM Mozart taunts Leutgeb as a cheesemonger, because his father-in-law owned a cheese shop, and delights in scribbling insults on his musical scores. DR. FLORA WILLSON Mozart writes on one of these manuscripts that ‘this is dedicated to Leutgeb: ox, ass and simpleton.’ Leutgeb, it seems, took this in good humour; presumably enjoyed weathering the affections of this very energetic, sometimes very infantile, young man. COMM Leutgeb elevated what had been considered a humble hunting horn into a showcase for a solo star. DR. FLORA WILLSON The horn, at the time Mozart is writing, is not the valved French horn that you might think of today. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG It's got a tiny little shallow mouthpiece. To just make a sound out of a horn is half-impossible. But by inserting his hand in the bell of the horn, he could manually shorten the tube, or lengthen the tube, in such a way as to be able to play chromatic pitches. It's a phenomenally difficult thing to do. And Mozart heard what Leutgeb could do with his horn, and just said: ‘OMG.’ And Mozart proceeds to write a series of concerti for horn that basically revolutionised the repertoire. DR. FLORA WILLSON It’s got this almost operatic ambition, and is also really quite technically challenging. He's basically daring Leutgeb to experiment with all these things. It becomes this kind of dance between Mozart's ambitions in music, and what Leutgeb, as an expert horn player of the time, can achieve with the techniques that are possible on the horn. DR. FLORA WILLSON There's this effervescence, this energy that runs through the music that he writes this time. He, he feels his own success. He’s got it in his hands right now, and he's loving it. COMM In 1785, twenty-nine year-old Mozart is on top of the world, but there is still something missing. RICHARD E GRANT Mozart hadn’t seen his father for two years, and he essentially offered an olive branch to say that thing that a five year-old child does, you know: ‘Watch me, Dad. Watch me, Mum.’ Knowing that he is now at the pinnacle of his financial and musical career. But still, Mozart would crave the approval from his father. Leopold goes to every concert Mozart gives, and he’s surrounded by the great and the good of his age. And it’s like turning up at the Oscars every single night, and his son is the star. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG At one of these concerts, the Emperor himself stands up and yells, “Bravo, Mozart! Bravo, Mozart!” as he applauds. The Emperor! CHRIS ADDISON His son is this enormous success. There is no control that the father has anymore, and no understanding of the life that his son lives. ADJOA ANDOH “We never get to bed before one o’clock at night, never get up before nine o’clock. Eat at two to half-past. Concerts every day. Music, composing, etcetera. Where should I put myself? If only the concerts were over and done with.” RICHARD E GRANT Wow. I don’t know how you put into words what this music makes you feel, but it's beauty personified. That’s as close as I can get. STEPHEN FRY Astonishing. When I listen to this piece of music, it to me marks the moment Mozart becomes a giant in the world. He’s doing things with the mind and the soul of the individual listener that’s really not been done before. GOLDA SCHULTZ You want to be a romantic, right? And you wanna say his dad listens to that and goes… You know, a single tear running down his cheek, thinking: ‘That's my boy.’ But It's difficult for parents to watch their children surpass them in talent and celebrity. RICHARD E GRANT Leopold had talent, but what his son had was genius. And he as a musician would know that this piece of music is very simple, but that it has this effect on people, and such resonance. I think reconciling in his head that he would never have what his son had, must have been ego -rushing. Why his son, and not him? COMM Leopold Mozart returns to Salzburg in April of 1785, depressed and disillusioned. The influence he once wielded over his son has been completely extinguished. COMM Mozart’s freelance concerts have made him the most famous musician in Vienna, but he still craves the status that comes with an official court appointment. EDWARD GARDNER It's hard to separate those two parts of Mozart's personality. The rebel, the tearaway, who wanted to make his own rules and live outside these courts, but also the person who deeply craved their acceptance. Those two elements in his character seemed to travel with him through his life. COMM To secure his place in Vienna’s cultural elite, Mozart needs to play the big Italian composers at their own game: Italian language opera. DR. FLORA WILLSON He’s now putting his hat into the ring, as another person who wants to be taken seriously as a composer of Italian opera. This is what he’s been wanting to do for years. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG “All I want to do is compose opera!” And he has what he believes is the perfect vehicle – a play called The Marriage of Figaro. COMM Mozart’s choice is typically audacious. The Marriage of Figaro is the most controversial play of its time, and has already been banned by the Emperor. CHRIS ADDISON This play is so explosive that Napoleon says it's the first shot of the French Revolution. If I'm advertising to you: ‘You know the play that you were excited to see, that got banned and you never got to see it? Well, we're putting it onstage, but with music by the greatest composer of the age. Would you like a ticket?’ You say: ‘Yes, please.’ COMM Figaro will be premiered on the most important stage of its day: The Imperial Burgtheater. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG The Burgtheater would have been an exercise in the deluxe. Everyone would be dressed to the nines. COMM The great and good of Vienna are in attendance – including Mozart’s Italian rivals, led by Antonio Salieri. DR. FLORA WILLSON Mozart is now pitting himself against them. This is a big deal. He's on their home turf. The sense of anticipation: ‘Is this piece going to hit the mark? Is it going to work in the way that Mozart hopes? Is everything going to come together?’ And he’s courting controversy himself; he's risking his own career by actually taunting the people who are supporting him. EDWARD GARDNER Figaro is a critique of the people who it was being performed to – of the hierarchies of the existing social societies. He knew he was challenging his audience, in a way that a composer like Salieri certainly wasn’t. CHRIS ADDISON Over the years, people emphasise the elegance at the expense of the life of the music. When you hear the overture to The Marriage of Figaro, it's not supposed to be a lovely little tune that you can hear in the background. It's supposed to go bang, right in your face. COMM The opera is about a Count who wants to enforce his aristocratic right to sleep with the fiancé of his servant, Figaro. DR. FLORA WILLSON The Count, he’s the villain of the piece. It’s very tempting to see Mozart channelling some of his own difficulties with male authority figures into this character. CHRIS ADDISON The notion of the little guy against the establishment, that really appeals to Mozart, who considers himself to be a man of the people – and that is the heart of Figaro. COMM The opera is a political attack on the upper classes. When Figaro challenges the authority of The Count, Mozart has him sing in a musical style traditionally reserved for the aristocracy. DR. FLORA WILLSON Lower-class characters with that level of respect, to give them so much musical poise, that was new. GOLDA SCHULTZ Oh, shit, I did it wrong already. GOLDA SCHULTZ Sorry, guys, start that again. Cut. MALE PRODUCTION CREW That’s alright. GOLDA SCHULTZ Whenever I listen to Figaro, I'm always so fascinated by this obsession with equality. He's trying to show people who he is as an artist and say: ‘This is what I offer. I'm offering you not stories of kings and queens. I'm offering you stories about us. Just people, having to get along with each other.’ DR. ROBERT GREENBERG If there’s something we have to remember about opera for a moment, it’s that, really, until Mozart’s day, opera was about certain character types that would behave certain ways under certain circumstances. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG They are formulas. And Mozart, he’s the first person to capture real humanity. And so, when Count Almaviva is finally shamed in front of everybody, the bluster we have heard up to now disappears. A lyricism enters his voice, as he begs his wife Rosina for forgiveness. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG It's an attempt to create realistic characters, behaving realistically. GOLDA SCHULTZ “Forgive me, Countess, forgive me.” And she says: “Because I am kinder than you, I will say yes.” GOLDA SCHULTZ “I will do the hard work of saying ‘I forgive you’, and try to move on.” Because the easiest thing would be to say: “Fuck you, piss off.” Like, everybody wants that. Everyone who watches the show is always like: “Why doesn’t she just leave him? ‘Cos he’s going to do it again.” And I always think to myself: ‘But that belies how we as human beings operate.’ GOLDA SCHULTZ We operate on the notion that forgiveness is something real and tangible, that forgiveness is the only reason we are around each other, that we’re gonna make mistakes. And if we just all said to every person who injured us and hurt us, just said, “Well, piss off, I never want to deal with you again”, we would all be extremely lonely people. Forgiveness is the only thing that keeps us, as a society, together. COMM In the final scene, all the characters come together in forgiveness. For Mozart, a man still estranged from his family, it is a poignant statement of hope. COMM But not all of his audience feels the same way. DR. ROBERT GREENBERG The aristocracy just witnessed four hours of being made fun of – of being put down by common characters, singing common music, that ultimately resulted in the humiliation of one of their own. COMM Mozart believes this is his best work yet, but the powers that be disagree. EDWARD GARDNER Mozart turns around and greets the audience, many of whom are cheering, but looks up and sees a group of people jeering. And how strange it must have been for him to have this celebration of the piece, with the people it's being written about, with a portion of the audience booing him. The idea, yet again, that he can't be part of the fabric of a court society is pretty clear. COMM Mozart has bitten the hand that feeds him, and The Marriage of Figaro is only given nine performances. A faultline is starting to crack open: Mozart needs to express his radical genius, but society has to come with him – and the world is about to change.