Amadé! Amadé!

Congratulations twice! The premiere of a new opera and a new wife! Well done! Please dear brother, (I suppose I must call you that now) be as kind to Stanzi as Vienna has been to your opera… She certainly needed someone to rescue her from wasting her life caring for Mama’s boarders. You can see why I got out of there as fast as I could! You’ll not catch me squandering the beautiful years washing linens for strangers. Oh…if I had known you would be one of those strangers, things might have been different, but my imagination is best used to invent a costume for my next recital.

Goodness! How long it has been since I last wrote to you! Little Sophie
described your simple wedding in the grand Stephansdom when we met for ices this Tuesday. She said you both seemed as fragile as the candle flames flickering at the altars & that you wept when Konstanze finally became your wife. I hope they were tears of joy! & I also hope for your sake as much as for your music, that the flame of life is stronger in both of you than in those candles. Part of me wishes I had been there, but Sophie was right, Stanzi needed her own moment to shine without me there to steal the show.

Well, silly me! I just forgot the entire reason for writing this letter!
As our wedding gift to you and Stanzi, Joseph would like to paint a portrait of you & one of Stanzi too. Joseph is getting quite good. He paints almost every evening after work.

So, could you & Stanzi perhaps find some time between parties & performances to come & sit for him? It would be lovely to host you at our flat for a change. Just to warn you, though, Joseph is not a fast painter. Who knows how long he’ll take to finish the portraits… He carefully brings out the character of his subjects you will see. It’s so
interesting & modern how he doesn’t paint formal poses. I do wish the entire place didn’t smell like oils, but what can I do? You know how I adore the arts! I can’t wait to see how he paints you…

What do you say?
(Alright, I’ll admit it, Cavalieri did a glorious job as Konstanze, but I want that role! It should be mine. You know it as well as I do…)

Write when you get a chance!
♥Aloysia Weber Lange

(Exerpts from Letters to Mozart © 2006 Kristin Serafini.)