250th birthday - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2006 - 55 Euro Cent

Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Theophilus Mozart was born on the 27th of January 1756 in Salzburg. His father Leopold Mozart recognized early on the musical talent of his children. One year later first performances and compositions followed. Leopold Mozart proved to be a successful manager. Wolfgang's first concert tours and his sister Nannerl, who was five years older, were arranged to present the talented children to the nobility. During the Vienna trip of several months in 1762, the "Wunderkind" performed in the Palais Collalto for the first time in front of the Viennese public. The highlight of this tour was certainly the performance in front of Empress Maria Theresia in Schönbrunn Palace. After the concert, Wolferl hopped into the lap of the monarch without any fear, embraced and kissed her. The prodigy, a little man with a powdered wig and miniature sword, was talking to the city. On the second visit of the Mozart family in the imperial city from September 1767 to January 1769, Mozart successfully conducted his "Orphanage Mass" and wrote, among other symphonies, his first two operas, the operetta Bastien and Bastienne and the opera buffa La finta semplice. Maria Theresa granted the twelve-year-old a two-hour audience in the Hofburg, the musical success of Hof, although by C.W. Gluck protested, but stayed out. The family fled from this time before the smallpox epidemic from Vienna to Olomouc, but still fell ill Wolfgang and his sister. His time as a court musician in Salzburg was interrupted by three trips to Italy and a successful tour of France, in between a trip to Vienna. From March 1781 Mozart stayed in Vienna. His employment at the Salzburger Hof was terminated after a rift with the archbishop. The beginning in Vienna was promising and he fell into almost manic work. In 1782 he was able to convince the court with the opera "The Abduction from the Serail". In the same year Mozart married Konstanze Weber. Through the collaboration with Lorenzo da Ponte was 1784/85, the opera "Le Nozze di Figaro", 1787 "Don Giovanni". The appointment as imperial chamber musician in November 1787 brought Mozart in addition to the social recognition also a regular income. The last years of Mozart's life (1789-1791) were artistically and financially successful, but his debts grew rapidly due to his extravagance and the unfortunate hand of his wife in dealing with money. It was the last of the Da Ponte operas "Cosi fan tutte". The opera "Titus", commissioned for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II in Prague, faded behind the great success of the "Magic Flute". Already from the late summer of 1791 Mozart was ailing and at the beginning of December a dramatic deterioration of his condition took place, which led to his death within a few days. He could not finish the requiem. Mozart was, according to the Josephine regulations, buried in a shaft grave at St.Marxer cemetery. The city of Vienna had a memorial stone erected in the honorary grave grove of the central cemetery.