Opera Singers in Vienna

chapter 23
The Opera Singers in Vienna

Dorothea Link
The opera singers with whom Mozart worked in Vienna in the 1780s
belonged to one or more of three opera companies. The first was the
court Italian opera, established in 1783, which was of an international
calibre and which recruited its singers largely from Italy. The second was
the court singspiel, which operated from Easter 1778 to Lent 1783 and again
from October 1785 to Lent 1788 and whose singers came from German-
speaking centres. The company occasionally shared its lower-rank singing
actors with the court Schauspiel (acting company) to which it belonged
administratively and artistically.1 The two times the singspiel was dis-
solved, its first-rank singers were absorbed into the Italian company,
where they assumed the status of second-rank singers. The third opera
company played in the suburban Theater auf der Wieden; its singers could
also be actors, composers, playwrights and impresarios. The difference in
status and quality of the companies and their singers can be determined
from the salary figures. The prima donna of the court Italian company, at
different times Nancy Storace, Celeste Coltellini, Luisa Laschi Mombelli
and Adriana Ferrarese, was paid 4,500 florins, the prima donna of the court
singspiel, Aloysia Weber Lange, was paid 1,706f 40x, and the prima donna
of the Theater auf der Wieden, Josefa Weber Hofer, was paid 832f.2 In
what follows, I will situate Mozart’s Viennese singers within their respec-
tive companies and Vienna’s operatic life as Mozart interacted with them.
Die Entführung aus dem Serail was first performed on 16 July 1782 in the
final year of the singspiel’s first run, when it had attained a certain degree of
1
The actor Johann Heinrich Friedrich Müller established and directed the singspiel in its first two
years, after which it was assigned to the five-member directorate of the Schauspiel and thence to
Gottlieb Stephanie d. Jüngere, who also directed the singspiel at its revival in 1785. See H. F. Müllers
Abschied von der k. k. Hof- und National- Schaubühne (Vienna, 1802), p. 264.
2
Hofer’s contract for 1791–2 is reproduced in Emil Karl Blümml, Aus Mozarts Freunds- und
Familienkreis (Vienna: Strache, 1923), pp. 128–30. Salaries for the singers in the court theatre can
be found in Dorothea Link, The National Court Theatre in Mozart’s Vienna (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1998), pp. 404–48. A gulden (abbreviated f. or fl. for florin) contains 60 kreuzer (abbreviated x).
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The Opera Singers in Vienna 199
stability. The prima donna at that time was Aloysia Weber Lange (1,706f
36x). Also in the company since 1 May 1781 was the seria singer Antonia
Bernasconi (salary 2,133f 20x) but in what capacity is unclear. Hers was a
puzzling appointment, as the emperor did not want her and as she was of
little use to the company.3 However, her prowess as a singer of tragic roles,
such as Alceste, which she had created for Gluck in Vienna in 1767, and
Aspasia, created for Mozart in Mitridate in Milan in 1770, unexpectedly
became useful in the autumn of 1781 when the court found it expedient to
mount three serious Gluck operas for the imperial visit of Grand Duke
Paul and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovina of Russia.4 In the comic
operas, according to Mozart, she sang so badly no one wanted to write for
her.5 Mozart was spared that fate with his Entführung, but he also was
denied Lange as his prima donna. Instead, Catarina Cavalieri (1,200f),
Antonio Salieri’s student and protégé, was cast in the main role of
Konstanze. Cavalieri may not have possessed Lange’s subtle musicianship,
but she could sing brilliant and loud coloratura, a strength of which Mozart
took full advantage, most memorably in ‘Martern aller Arten’. From
among the company’s four lower-rank female singers, Therese Teyber
(600f) was chosen to sing Blondchen. The singspiel’s male singers included
one of Germany’s finest basses, Ludwig Fischer (2,400f), whose exception-
ally resonant bass notes and superb acting skills Mozart exploited to great
comic effect in the role of Osmin. Valentin Adamberger (2,133f 20x) came
from a background of singing seria roles in Italy and brought with him a
beautiful tenor voice and excellent vocal technique, which allowed Mozart
to indulge in writing virtuosic music for him as Belmonte. His acting was
said to be wooden, but in this opera Johann Ernst Dauer (1,200f) more
than compensated as the lively Pedrillo. Engaged as a comic tenor for the
singspiel, he soon also performed in the Schauspiel. The actor Dominik
Jautz (800f) was borrowed from the Schauspiel for the speaking role of the
Pasha Selim.
For Le nozze di Figaro, first performed on 1 May 1786, Mozart was
allotted the cream of the Italian opera company. The prima donna Nancy
Storace (4,500f), who portrayed Susanna, may not have had an outstand-
ingly beautiful voice, but she possessed excellent acting skills and a high
3
Joseph to Count Rosenberg, 1 October 1781, in Rudolf Payer von Thurn (ed.), Joseph II. als
Theaterdirektor: Ungedruckte Briefe und Aktenstücke aus den Kinderjahren des Burgtheaters (Vienna:
Heidrich, 1920), p. 26.
4
Iphigenie auf Taurus, Alceste (sung in Italian) and Orfeo ed Euridice. Bernasconi sang in a total of
twenty-five performances of these operas.
5
MBA, vol. 3, p. 153; LMF, pp. 761–2 (29 August 1781).
200 dorothea link
level of musicianship, both of which left their mark on the opera.6 By the
rules of the theatre she was entitled to a large vocal display-piece before the
last finale, but Mozart dropped it in favour of the virtuosically slighter but
musically more demanding aria ‘Deh vieni, non tardar’. In Francesco
Benucci (4,185f) Mozart had the best Figaro he could wish for, as
Benucci was a cut above the typical primo buffo caricato, both in possessing
a solid vocal technique and in exercising good taste in his comic acting.7
Stefano Mandini (4,185f), who today would be considered a baritone, was
then classified as either a mezzo carattere or a basso buffo, depending on
whether he sang tenor-clef or bass-clef roles.8 In the 1783 Vienna produc-
tion of Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Sevilla, Mandini had played the tenor lover
Count Almaviva. In the story’s sequel in Le nozze di Figaro, he again played
Almaviva, but now the character has changed from a lover to a powerful
nobleman, so Mozart wrote the role for Mandini’s baritonal voice. Luisa
Laschi (3,375f), who a few years later matured into the company’s prima
donna, was as yet inferior in rank and salary to Storace, but Mozart made
the role of the Countess equal in depth and interest to that of Susanna, in
effect creating two prima donna roles. Noticeably, he did not give Laschi
much coloratura to sing although coloratura was conventionally reserved
for a countess or other exalted person. When Cavalieri took over the role in
the opera’s revival three years later, Mozart rewrote her second-act aria so as
to add the appropriate coloratura. For Laschi, though, Mozart wrote long
cantabile lines, which came to typify her singing.
The second-rank singers included Francesco Bussani (2,520f), who
played Bartolo and Antonio. He had been engaged for the company in
1783 as a tenor but soon switched to lower roles. The comic tenor Michael
Kelly (1,800f) played Basilio and Don Curzio. Dorothea Sardi Bussani
(1,350f), who had joined the company only a few weeks before the opera’s
premiere, created Cherubino. Mandini’s wife, Maria, sang Marcellina, and
the twelve-year old Anna Gottlieb, the daughter of husband-and-wife
actors employed in the Schauspiel, played Barberina.
Despite the large number of characters in the opera, there was no role
suitable for a seria tenor. Otherwise Mozart might have written for
6
For a vocal portrait of the singer see Dorothea Link (ed.), Arias for Nancy Storace, Mozart’s First
Susanna (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2002), pp. vii–xvii.
7
A buffo caricato is a highly regarded type of buffo singer, who specializes in humour based on the
stylized antics characteristic of the commedia dell’arte tradition. See Dorothea Link (ed.), Arias for
Francesco Benucci, Mozart’s First Figaro and Guglielmo (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2004), p. x.
8
Regarding Mandini’s voice type, see Dorothea Link (ed.), Arias for Stefano Mandini, Mozart’s First
Count Almaviva (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2015), pp. xii–xviii.
Domenico Mombelli, one of the most celebrated tenors in the late eight-
eenth century. He was recruited from the Teatro San Carlo in spring 1786
at a salary of 4,500 gulden, the highest to that point, but his presence in
Vienna over the three years of his engagement, and again for two years in
1794, left hardly a trace. Very few of the roles that he sang are known, and,
of those, only one was composed for him, the tenor role in Joseph Weigl’s
Il pazza per forza. Surprisingly, he was not cast in Salieri’s Axur, re d’Ormus,
the imperial wedding opera of 1788 that marked the greatest dynastic event
in Joseph’s reign. Instead, the mezzo carattere tenor Vincenzo Calvesi
(3,600f) created the demanding tenor role.9
When Mozart received his commission for Le nozze di Figaro in the
summer of 1785, the singspiel was being revived, and he could conceivably
have been asked to compose another German opera as he frequently
professed wanting to do. The following February he got his chance to
compose not a full singspiel but a scenario consisting of several musical
numbers to fit into the spoken play Der Schauspieldirektor. As part of the
entertainment for his imperial visitors, Joseph had instructed the German
company, comprising the Schauspiel and the singspiel, and the Italian
opera company to face off in an artistic competition, in which they each
presented a one-act stage work with themselves as the subject matter.
Representing the singspiel were Lange as Mme Herz, Cavalieri as Mlle
Silberklang and Adamberger as Vogelsang. All three were former singspiel
singers who had been kept on for the Italian company, but in October
Lange had returned to the singspiel, where Adamberger was to join her
after Easter. Cavalieri, except for this one event, remained with the Italians.
Composed for Prague in the autumn of 1787, Don Giovanni was
presented in Vienna on 7 May 1788. For this production Mozart was
unlucky with his singers. For starters, he wound up with a cast of largely
second-rank performers. The only first-rank singers were Benucci, who
sang Leporello, and Laschi, now Laschi Mombelli (and now 4,500f), who
sang Zerlina. The coloratura of Donna Anna’s role did not suit her, while
Zerlina offered the greatest room for acting and coquettish singing, espe-
cially with Benucci opposite her.10 Mozart reinforced the pairing of the two
stars by composing a new comical duet for them in Act 2, ‘Per queste tue
manine’. Among the second-rank singers, Francesco Albertarelli (2,250f),
new to the company, sang Giovanni. Had Mandini not taken a year’s leave
9
Dorothea Link (ed.), Arias for Vincenzo Calvesi, Mozart’s First Ferrando (Middleton, WI: A-R
Editions 2011), pp. ix–xx.
10
While she usually portrayed serious roles, she also created to great acclaim the impish Amore in
Vicente Martín y Soler’s L’arbore di Diana (1787).
202 dorothea link
of absence just then, he would almost certainly have sung the role; indeed,
Salieri biographer and conductor Ignaz von Mosel in later years distinctly
remembers as a sixteen-year-old hearing Mandini sing Giovanni!11 The
newly recruited tenor Francesco Morella (1,800f) sang Don Ottavio. He
seems to have been the only tenor available. Mombelli would have made
for a dream Ottavio, but he had opened the season two weeks earlier
singing opposite the returning prima donna Coltellini. Calvesi, too, was
unavailable for, like Mandini, he had taken a leave of absence. Adamberger
was nominally back in the Italian company, but his duties were now split
between the opera and the Hofkapelle, and in truth he never was very
active in the Italian company. So Morella it was. Interestingly, he may not
have been as vocally weak as is usually thought, although the evidence can
go both ways. The original orchestral parts show that early in the produc-
tion Morella was to have sung both ‘Dalla sua pace’, the new aria that
Mozart wrote for him, and ‘Il mio tesoro’, the more difficult Prague aria,
even if in the end the latter was cut.12 Bussani sang Masetto and possibly
the Commendatore, but as he used to sing tenor he would not have had the
sepulchral voice now associated with the latter role. Cavalieri (now 2,133f
20x) was assigned the role of Elvira; her vocal capabilities inspired Mozart
to enlarge the role by adding a new aria, ‘Mi tradì quell’alma ingrata’.
Lange (still 1,706f 40x) sang Donna Anna. Despite her success in the
singspiel, she was often said to have had a weak voice and now was said
to have lost her voice.13 Whether true or not, she sang no further roles and
was let go at the end of the season.
Compounding the casting problems were the pregnancies of Laschi
Mombelli and Lange. Management had prepared for Laschi Mombelli’s
confinement by having Teyber, now Teyber Arnold (and now 1,400f),
replace her as Zerlina for the month of July when she was off,14 but there
was no replacement for Lange, so the opera could not be performed in
11
In Jahrbücher des deutschen Nationalvereines für Musik und ihre Wissenschaft (1841), quoted in
Christopher Raeburn, ‘Mosel und Zinzendorf über Mozart’, in Walter Gerstenberg, Jan LaRue
and Wolfgang Rehm (eds.), Festschrift Otto Erich Deutsch zum achtzigsten Geburtstag (Kassel:
Bärenreiter, 1963), p. 156.
12
Wolfgang Rehm, Critical Report for Don Giovanni, NMA, II/5/17 (2003), p. 57.
13
Joseph Lange, Biographie des Joseph Lange, k. k. Hofschauspielers (Vienna, 1808), p. 151, relates that the
Kaiser was told she had lost her voice, which was why her contract was not renewed. The reason
given for not keeping her on, as entered into the court records, is that her voice was too weak.
Rosenberg to Kaiser Franz, 11 September 1794, quoted in Elizabeth Grossegger, Das Burgtheater und
sein Publikum, part 2, vol. 1, Pächter und Publikum, 1794–1817 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1989), p. 116.
14
Laschi Mombelli sang until the day before the delivery on 1 July and returned to the stage on 4
August.
almost all of August, all of September and most of October.15 Surprisingly,
the opera still managed to rack up fifteen performances that season, second
only to Salieri’s Axur with twenty-four performances.
Così fan tutte, produced on 26 January 1790, once again featured a stellar
cast with four first-rank singers. The prima donna Adriana Ferrarese
(4,500f) sang Fiordiligi.16 At her debut her voice was described as the
best heard in living memory within Vienna’s walls, even if her acting did
not measure up to her singing. As soon became apparent, she was also
limited in the kind of music that suited her, but as long as she was provided
with music featuring large leaps between chest and head registers and
endless passages of coloratura, she shone. Mozart made a virtue of her
limitation: as Fiordiligi she had only to play herself. Calvesi was back and,
as this year’s only first-rank tenor in the company, created Ferrando.
Mozart wrote a dazzling role for him. While the other singers were each
given two arias, Calvesi alone was given three, including the fiendishly
difficult ‘Ah lo veggio quell’anima bella’ with its thirteen high B♭s, its
breathless, close phrasing and a melody that repeatedly crosses the break
between the head and chest registers. Benucci created Guglielmo, a role
dramatically more constrained than usual for him, in consideration of
which Mozart may have wanted to give him a chance to display his singing
talent. The grand aria ‘Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo’ K. 584 that he wrote for
Benucci could have allowed him to join the singing match between the
Fiordiligi and the Ferrando, but in the end Mozart removed it from the
opera. Luisa Villeneuve, who had sung Cherubino in the 1789 revival of Le
nozze di Figaro, radiated charm and finesse in the role of Dorabella.17 The
secondary roles, Alfonso and Despina, were filled by the Mozart veterans,
Francesco and Dorothea Bussani.
Mozart composed the singspiel Die Zauberflöte, premiered 30 September
1791, for Emanuel Schikaneder’s company in the Theater auf der Wieden.
Much like a travelling troupe, the company relied heavily on the versatility
and varied experiences of its singers. Schikaneder was an actor, singer,
15
Lange’s advanced pregnancy prevented her from singing in late August, perhaps earlier, as we know
from Joachim Daniel Preisler’s report of 20 August when he visited her and her husband. She gave
birth on 2 September and was apparently back on stage for the performance of Don Giovanni on 24
October.
16
Direct proof for the salary figure is lacking, as the relevant account books are missing. However,
4,500f had been and continued to be the top salary paid to singers; also in failed negotiations with
singers, the line was drawn at 4,500f (or 1,000 ducats), for example for Storace when she wanted to
return from London in 1788 and for Mandini when he wanted to return from Paris in 1791.
17
She had made her Vienna debut in the other trouser role, that of Amore in L’arbore di Diana. Mozart
also composed three substitute arias for her, K. 578, K. 582 and K. 583.
204 dorothea link
playwright and impresario; he wrote the libretto for Die Zauberflöte and
created the role of Papageno. He had been employed at the court theatre in
1785–6 (for 1,400f), first for the Schauspiel, then the singspiel when it
recommenced. Benedikt Schack, the tenor who created Tamino, was also
a prolific composer of singspiels, many in collaboration with the bass, actor
and composer Franz Xaver Gerl, the first Sarastro. Johann Joseph Nouseul,
an actor, singer and impresario, sang Monostatos. He and his wife had been
engaged for the court theatre’s Schauspiel in 1779, but after one and a half
seasons he was let go while she carried on. Hofer, the Queen of the Night,
had unsuccessfully auditioned for the Italian opera in 1784, after fifteen
months of lessons in voice and Italian at the court’s expense.18 Gottlieb,
the first Barberina, sang Pamina. Family members performed the smaller
roles: Barbara Gerl created Papagena, Elisabeth Schack sang one of the Three
Ladies, Urban Schikaneder appeared as one of the priests, Anna Schikaneder
played the First Boy. Some idea of how the cast sounded might be obtained
from a comment made by Baron von Reitzenstein, who spent a good part of
1789 and 1790 in Vienna. In his survey of the city’s seven theatres, he observes
that the German singers in the suburban theatres remain far behind the
Italians, who possess a technique unique to them, that of cantabile or
portamento singing.19
The hierarchical position of the singers within and across companies is
not in any way reflected in the music Mozart composed for them: the
brilliance of the Queen of the Night’s arias, for example, does not betray
any of Hofer’s weaknesses. Quite the contrary: Mozart writes to her
strengths, her thrilling staccato notes in the high celestial register, and
that sound image gets abstracted from the conditions that gave rise to it to
become the very expression of godly rage. In some way, the singers’ vocal
peculiarities, while making an imprint on the music composed for them,
recede into the background, as they yield to the sublimity of the music that
lifts the operas far above the particulars of their inception.
18
The singing and Italian lessons are recorded in the theatre account books, A-Whh, Hofarchiv, General
Intendanz der Hoftheater, Rechnungen der k.k. Theatral- Hof- Directions Cassae, S.R. 20 (1783–84),
expenditure no.118, and S.R. 21 (1784–85), expenditures nos. 134 and 142. Joseph to Rosenberg, 13 March
1784, ‘I like your idea of trying out Melle Weber in a role to see how she fares in front of an audience’, in
Payer von Thurn (ed.), Joseph II. als Theaterdirektor, p. 49. Zinzendorf, 14 July 1784, identifies the opera
in which she appeared as I viaggiatori felici and also gives his verdict, ‘Marchesi [was] dull, la Weber
forced her voice, la Storace pretty, kept her rondo short with just the cavatina’, quoted in Link, National
Court Theatre, p. 230. The few existing contemporary descriptions of Hofer agree that she was a very
poor actress. Of her singing, one writer in 1789 observes that she had a strong and expressive voice, which,
however, was a little rough in places. (My translations.) See also Paul Corneilson, ‘Josepha Hofer, First
Queen of the Night’, Mozart-Studien, 25 (2018), pp. 477–500.
19
Baron Carl von Reitzenstein, Reise nach Wien (Hof, 1795), p. 347.

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chapter 23

The Opera Singers in Vienna

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