Mozart in Italy: Coming of Age in the Land of Opera

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'You don't have to be able to hum Mozart to find this book utterly engrossing . . . I couldn't put it down' - Joanna Lumley At thirteen years old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy who had captured the hearts of northern Europe, but his father Leopold was now determined to conquer Italy. Together, they made three visits there the last when Mozart was seventeen, all vividly recounted here by acclaimed conductor Jane Glover. Father and son travelled from the theatres and concert salons of Milan to the church-filled streets of Rome to Naples, poorer and more dangerous than the prosperous north, and to Venice, the carnivalesque birthplace of public opera. All the while Mozart was absorbing Italian culture, language, style and art, and honed his craft. He met the challenge of writing Italian opera for Italian singers and audiences and provoked a variety of responses, from triumph and admiration to intrigue and hostility: in a way, these Italian years can be seen as a microcosm of his whole life. Evocative, beautifully written and with a profound understanding of eighteenth-century classical music, Mozart in Italy reveals how what he experienced during these Italian journeys changed Mozart - and his music - for ever.

Reviews

You dont have to be able to hum Mozart to find this book utterly engrossing. As a fan of both the fabled composer and Dame Jane Glover, Mozart in Italy is a match made in heaven. I couldnt put it down. -- Joanna Lumley
An account of the teenage Mozarts operatic awakening is packed with humanising detail . . . [Glover] makes clear that Mozart lived very much in the real 18th-century world of dirt, illness, bedbugs and discomfort, not permanently wrapped in some fuzzy golden halo of brilliance. * The Guardian *
Mozart in Italy is a fascinating account of classical musics greatest failure a story of promise unfulfilled, opportunities missed and roads not taken. * The Spectator *
A fine conductor, Glover is also an accomplished writer, displaying, as in her earlier books, a nonchalant grace in marshalling her sources, reading cannily between their lines and taking care to provide proper historical context as the Mozarts zigzag over the chessboard of Italian princely states. * Literary Review *
Glovers historical awareness of Italys operatic legacy is profound, like her expertise on things Mozartian . . . Glover is, rarer than a good conductor, an enchanting explainer. Her literary approach resembles her sometimes exceedingly subtle and decorous conducting. * Opera Now *
Brimming with life, Glovers vibrant account of Mozarts unique and absorbing adolescence is joyously rewarding. * The Toronto Star *

Author Bio

In Jane Glover's long and hugely successful career as a conductor, she has been Music Director of the Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Artistic Director of The London Mozart Players, and, since 2002, is Music Director of Chicago's Music of the Baroque. She has conducted concerts and operas in Britain, the United States of America and across the world, and is especially known for her interpretations of Mozart. She is a regular broadcaster, with highlights including a television series on Mozart. She is also the author of Mozart's Women and Handel in London. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the 2021 New Year's Honours. She lives in London.