Mozart!

MOZART!
A Musical by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay

Book and Lyrics: Michael Kunze
Music and Orchestrations: Sylvester Levay

Performed in Lithuanian

Director VIKTORIJA STREIČA
Musical Director and Chief Conductor JONAS JANULEVIČIUS
Set Designer ARTŪRAS ŠIMONIS
Costumes and Make-up Designer JUOZAS STATKEVIČIUS
Conductor OKSANA MADARASH
Choreographer DAINIUS BERVINGIS
Chorus master RASA VAITKEVIČIŪTĖ
Lighting Designer AUDRIUS JANKAUSKAS
Video Designer ARVYDAS STRIMAITIS

Premiere on 6th October, 2023
Running time 3 h.

Mozart! – Heart Blood of a Troubled Genius
A child prodigy with the brightest of futures
A life torn between brilliance and self destruction
A musical legend killed by his own ingenuity

Vereinigte Bühnen Wien
Worldwide Stage Rights: VBW International GmbH

Building on the successful strategy by VBW to integrate historical biographies into musical concepts, MOZART! presents another celebrity of Austria’s rich history as the lead character of an exceptional musical production: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791), one of the most celebrated classical composers of all time, famous for his masterful melodies and infamous for his extravagant lifestyle–reminiscent in many ways of modern pop star antics –, who, after an unprecedented and feverishly rapid career, died a premature death at the age of only 35.
MOZART! is based on a related narrative idea, dedicated to a protagonist who is at odds with the world that surrounds him. Although set in the historical world of the 18th century, 21st-century audiences will have no problem instantly sympathizing with the obstacles faced by the main protagonist and will recognize many familiar elements from their own life experience. MOZART! deals with a fate that no one can escape – the drama of growing up and growing older – and as such is a timeless and touching tale.

MOZART! – a rock star in a Rococo world. This collision of styles sums up the approach taken by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay in their smash hit musical. The clash of the irreconcilable – the past and the present – reflects the ambiguity of the main protagonist. Mozart, the man, feels stifled by the conventions of life in Salzburg: as an artist he is little more than a lackey at the service of the nobility. But he longs for artistic and personal freedom to live his own life, dreaming, drinking, playing cards and pursuing love. Amadé, the prodigy he once was and the impersonation of his genius, relentlessly pursues him in the guise of a haunting “porcelain child” who writes music almost incessantly and is visible only to him and the audience.
This thrilling psychological ambiguity is greatly underlined by Sylvester Levay’s musical concept: the score integrates powerful modern styles such as ballads, ragtime and rock with the delicate original Rococo themes by Mozart, played whenever Amadé, Mozart’s nagging, puerile alter ego, sits at the piano.
Instead of focussing on the prevalent myth and the genius Mozart, the musical presents the legendary composer as a flawed, fragile and thus very tangible human being. MOZART! aims to free the figure of Mozart from the clichés and superficial adoration that attach to him and allows the audience to sense, as they leave the theater, having caught a glimpse on Mozart, the real man, as a living and breathing person.