Mozarting to fight melancholy

Well, when Christmas is over and January feels dreary, like it is now, I feel like it's time to bring more Mozart in my life. Okay, okay, I listen to him any time of the year anyway, but I find it a perfect remedy for melancholy. And I am terribly melancholic any time of year. Another way to find melancholy is a good dose of chocolates. And, luckily enough, the local sweet shop sells Mozartkugels. So I buy myself a box and I eat them listening to some of his operas. I call this Mozarting. My last box dated from November, so I need a new one. Mozartkugelns are not cheap, but the shopkeeper always gives me a reduce price on them. But anyway, I cannot write a post about Mozart withoutsharing a bit of his music, so here is an (abriedged) duet from The Magic Flute, sung by Golda Schultz (my favourite soprano at the moment) and Markus Werba, playing Pamina and Papageno, respectively.

Mozart: The Man Revealed

Here is a bit of a reading suggestion for classical music lovers. Those who may not be artists or specialist themselves, but are not totally clueless. Anyway, my wife bought me last year for my birthday a biography of Mozart: Mozart: the Man Revealed, by John Suchet. I had asked her to get me a book about Mozart, not specifying which one in particular, just any biography of Mozart would do, providing it is a good one. She got me that one and I was not disappointed. In fact, of all the books I read last year, it is the one I read wih the most interest. I got through it really quickly and I wished I had taken more time to enjoy it. Suchet made the subject really accessible to anyone with even the slightest interest in classical music. Apart from one point of contention (he seems to think little of the brilliantly subversive plot of Cosi fan tutte), I thoroughly enjoyed it. Suchet also made me far more knowledgeable about Mozart, his time and his entourage, whether familial or professional. Anyway, I cannot end a post on Mozart without sharing a piece of his music. Here's the opening duet from Le Nozze di Figaro, with Markus Werba as Figaro and Golda Schultz as Susanna. At the moment, Schultz might actually be my favourite soprano, for many reasons, but this is for another post.