The Other Mozart

source: vimeo

There was another Mozart – a forgotten genius, an other Mozart.
THE OTHER MOZART is the true and untold story of Nannerl Mozart, the sister of Amadeus – a prodigy, keyboard virtuoso and composer, who performed throughout Europe with her brother to equal acclaim, but her work and her story faded away, lost to history.
In 2006 performer and musician, Sylvia Milo, found Nannerl in the Mozart family portrait, and this project started.
Set in and on a sweeping 18-foot dress (designed by Magdalena Dabrowska from the National Theater of Poland), directed by Isaac Byrne, the play is based on facts, stories and lines pulled directly from the Mozart family’s humorous and heartbreaking letters. Along with music composed by her famous brother and Marianna Martines (a female composer who inspired Nannerl), original music was written for the play by Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen (of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and the International Contemporary Ensemble) using clavichords, music boxes, teacups, and fans.
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source: classicalite

The story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his older sister Nannerl–that is, the story of the male genius and his sister or wife who might be just as brilliant but never gets the chance–has parallels throughout human history, not to mention in classical music. Fanny Mendelssohn, recognized as brilliant at a young age, was nevertheless told her musicianship could be only “ornamental.” Clara Schumann, though an influential and celebrated pianist, was not widely recognized as a composer in her own time even as she worked tirelessly to promote her husband Robert’s music (and that of Brahms).

Saddest of all may be the story of Mozart’s sister, in the sense that while we have references to her having composed music, none survives. Leopold Mozart took his children touring together for years, and Maria Anna, known as Nannerl, was celebrated as a brilliant musician. A contemporary account in the Augsburger Intelligenz had this to say: “Imagine an eleven-year-old girl, performing the most difficult sonatas and concertos of the greatest composers, on the harpsichord or fortepiano, with precision, with incredible lightness, with impeccable taste. It was a source of wonder to many.”

But when Nannerl turned 18 in 1769 Leopold put a stop to her career. Dominated by her father and by society’s prevailing attitudes, she not only couldn’t pursue a music career, she couldn’t even marry the man she fell in love with.
The Other Mozart uses Nannerl’s letters and those of her family to ask “How could we have lost the other Mozart?” Set amidst a stunning 18-foot-diameter dress that fills and spills over the whole stage, the show was developed at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC and at the All for One Festival at NYC’s Cherry Lane Theatre. It was presented at the Berkshire Fringe in 2013, and in Austria, where it will return in May, invited by the Mozarteum in Salzburg and by Mozarthaus Sankt Gilgen, in the town where Nannerl lived for many years after she got married.
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source: gloucestercitynewsnet

A veteran New York stage performer, Milo conceived the storyline and showcase concept that is including other Polish musicians and theater entertainers.
Milo, originally from Warsaw, Poland, graduated from New York University and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She currently performs in repertory at the Flea Theater in NYC. Sylvia is also an accomplished acoustic and electric violinist.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Nannerl Mozart in 1763.
The narrative tells of Maria Anna (Marianne) Mozart who was a keyboard virtuoso, composer, and child prodigy in her own right. She toured Europe often in the 1760’s and performed with her more famous younger brother, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When still children and Maria Anna being five years older, she was often billed as the headliner. She went by her nickname Nannerl Mozart. There is new historical evidence she was an outstanding composer also. She spent her late years in Salzburg, Austria.