1782, and entertained them in the castle during their stay. They were dissatisfied with the hospitality they there received, and one of the actors had the ill-breeding, during a meal at which the Emperor happened to come in, to offer him a glass of wine, with the request that he would try it, and say whether such wretched Burgundy was good enough for them to drink. The Emperor drank the wine, and answered that it was good enough for him, but he had no doubt they would find better wine in France.[ 4 ]
On the dismissal of this company, Count Rosenberg was commissioned to engage the best singers in Italy, male and female, for an opera buffa, which was all that was then thought feasible; and at the end of the carnival of 1783 the German opera company was dissolved, its best members associating themselves with the new Italian company.[ 5 ] Under these circumstances there was not much hope of success for German operatic compositions; and only three new pieces were produced in 1783, none of them with any success.[ 6 ] Mozart wrote to his father (February 5, 1783):—
Yesterday my opera was given for the seventeenth time with the usual applause, and to a crowded house. Next Friday a new opera is to be given, the music an absurdity (Galimathias) by a young pupil of Wagenseil's
(Joh. Mederitsch), called "Gallus cantans in abore sedens gigirigi faciens." It will probably fail, but perhaps not so completely as its predecessor, an old opera by Gassmann," "La Notte Critica" ("The Disturbed Night"), which was scarcely brought to a third performance. Before this there was Umlaufs execrable opera, which only reached a second. It is as though, knowing that German opera is to die after Easter, they wanted to hasten its end by their own act: and they are Germans—confound them!—who do this. My own opinion is, that Italian opera will not survive long, and I shall always hold to the German; I prefer it, although it is certainly more trouble. Every nation has its opera, why should we Germans not have ours? Is not our language as fit for singing as the French and English? and more so than the Russian? Well, I am writing a German opera all for myself.
I have chosen as subject Goldoni's comedy "Il Servitore di Due Padroni," and the first act is already translated—the translator being Baron Binder! But it is to be a secret until it is finished. Now, what do you think of that? Don't you think that I shall do myself some good by it?
There can be little doubt that his father would have answered this question in the affirmative, but he would have been more sceptical as to the feasibility of the plan, and practical considerations seem to have caused its abandonment. Two German airs, preserved in draft score, belong by their handwriting to this period; one for a tenor (indicated as Carl), "Müsst ich auch durch tausend Drachen" (435 K.), and the other for a bass (Wahrmond), "Manner suchen stets zu naschen" (433 K.). No dramatic situation is recognisable, and it cannot therefore be affirmed that they were composed for this opera. The composition of a German opera for which he afterwards received a commission from Mannheim came to nothing. Klein sent him a libretto (doubtless "Rudolf von Habsburg")[ 7 ] with the request that he would set it to music, whereupon Mozart answered (March 21, 1785):[ 8 ]—
I ought certainly to have acknowledged before now the receipt of your letter and the accompanying parcel; but it is not the case that I have in the meantime received two other letters from you; if so, I should certainly have remembered to answer your first as I now do, having received your other two letters on the last post-day. But I should have had no more to say to you on the subject of the opera than I now have. My dear sir, my hands are so full of work that I have not a moment to myself. You know by experience, even better than I, that a thing of this sort must be read carefully and attentively several times over. Hitherto I have not been able to read it once without interruption. All that I can say at present is, that I should like to keep the piece a little longer, if you will be kind enough to leave it with me. In case I should feel disposed to set it to music, I should wish to know beforehand whether it is intended for performance at any particular place? For such a work ought not to be left to chance. I shall hope for an explanation on this point from you.
The reasons for the final rejection of this opera are unknown. Mozart's account of the position of German opera in Vienna is very characteristic. In 1784, it was almost extinct; only Madame Lange selected the "Entführung" for her benefit on January 25, conducted by Mozart himself (Wiener Zeitung, 1784, No. 7); and Adamberger gave Gluck's "Pilgrimme von Mecca" on February 15. Besides these, Benda's melodramas, "Ariadne" and "Medea," Jacquet's chief characters, were performed a few times. But when in the following year the desire for German opera revived, it was decided to reappoint the Kamthnerthortheater, which had been freed from its connection with the court, and to reinstate the German opera in competition with the Italian. On this point Mozart continues:—