The premiere of "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" in Strasbourg on 24 January 1783, and 10 other new documents
Posted: Wed, 13 May 2015
We have just added 11 new documents to our site. Highlights include:
- A report in the Augspurgische Ordinari Postzeitung describing the extraordinary reception of Die Entführung aus dem Serail at its first performance in Strasbourg on 24 Jan 1783; the performance concluded with the public announcement of the preliminary peace accords marking the end of fighting in the American Revolution. This is now the earliest dated and documented performance of the opera outside Vienna.
- A touching description from the Augspurgische Ordinari Postzeitung on 30 Mar 1767 of the wonder felt by those who witnessed the young Mozart conduct his own music for Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots in Salzburg on 12 Mar 1767.
- An article-length reconsideration of the documents (many not published in Dokumente or its supplements) concerning the German translation of Mozart’s La finta giardiniera as Die verstellte Gärtnerin and the performances of that version in Augsburg by the theatrical company of Johann Böhm in May 1780.
- A report in the Salzburg newspaper the Oberdeutsche Staatszeitung on 18 Jan 1787 of Mozart’s invitation to Prague in the wake of the tremendous reception of his Le nozze di Figaro in that city.
Other new documents include: four instances of Mozart’s appearance during his lifetime on published lists of important and famous composers (1784, 1788, 1789, 1790); the report of Leopold Mozart’s death in the Salzburger Intelligenzblatt (27 Jun 1787); and addenda to documents in Dokumente (31 Dec 1764) and Neue Folge (14 Sep 1771 [this entry has now been omitted from our site as of 14 Nov 2022]). We have also made substantive updates to two documents already on the site:
- The commentary to 8 Apr 1767 has been updated to show the likely connection of that report on Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots to the newly discovered one from the Augspurgische Ordinari Postzeitung.
- A report of Mozart’s death from the Erlanger gelehrte Zeitungen has been added to the page containing shorter obituaries in German-language newspapers (1791–92).