New Mozart Score Discovered in Prague

The Czech Museum of Music has found a long-lost work by the prolific Austrian composer

Elizabeth Zahradnicek-Haas

Written by Elizabeth Zahradnicek-Haas Published on 15.02.2016 09:47:56 (updated on 15.02.2016) Reading time: 1 minute

The year 2016 marks 260 years since Mozart’s birth. Celebrations are slated to take place in Salzburg, the Austrian composer’s birth place, Vienna, and Prague where Mozart composed his most famous opera “Don Giovanni” which premiered at the Estates Theatre in 1787.

So an announcement late last week by the Czech Museum of Music that it has uncovered a long-lost Mozart score couldn’t have been more perfectly timed.

Speaking to the international press, a representative for the museum said of the newly revealed work, “It’s a joint composition by Mozart and Salieri, a libretto by Italian poet Lorenzo Da Ponte put to music.”

The composition was found by museum staff in its reserve collection. It is scheduled to be performed at a press conference in Prague tomorrow.

The discovery of this collaboration is certainly a fascinating one given rumors of an allegedly vicious rivalry between Mozart and his Italian contemporary Antonio Salieri.

Films like Czech director Miloš Forman’s “Amadeus” have done little to dispel the claims, even going so far as to suggest that Salieri may have fatally poisoned Mozart, a myth that has now been widely debunked.

During his lifetime, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed more than six hundred works. Fans can celebrate his legacy in Prague this spring with the I’Mozart Music Festival (on from April 17-24) a series of concert and recitals.

Local classical music enthusiasts and film buffs will also want to look out for scenes from the upcoming Mozart drama “Interlude in Prague” starring British actor James Purefoy, which will reportedly begin shooting here this spring.

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