Mozarthaus Vienna and Mozart
Residence (Wien Museum)
Domgasse no. 5 is the only location in which Mozart resided in Vienna
which survives to the present day. Mozart lived on the representative
first floor, known as the bel étage, of the house at Domgasse no.
5 from September 1784 to April 1787. This was the largest and most
expensive apartment he occupied during his years in Vienna, and the
one in which the family stayed the longest. Here the composer lived in
considerable style, with four large rooms, two small rooms and a kitchen.
On 27 January 2006, the newly renovated Mozarthaus Vienna will
open a 1000m2 exhibition documenting the life and work of the musical
genius. Visitors will be able to immerse themselves in the world of
Mozart, discovering his genius, his creativity, his family, his friends, and
his rivals in Vienna during the late baroque period.
In addition to the Mozart apartment, which was adapted by the Wien
Museum, visitors can see an authentic presentation of Mozart’s time
and his living conditions on the second and third floors. The Mozart exhibition
is prefaced by the famous quotation from a letter to his father
Leopold: "... I assure you that this is a marvellous place - and the best
place in the world for my line of work.”
3rd floor: Mozart and his time in Vienna
The presentation centres on Mozart’s years in Vienna, which represent
the apex of his creativity. Visitors begin their tour on the third
floor of the building, where they can experience the world in which
Mozart lived. An audiovisual installation introduces visitors to Mozart’s
personal and social situation in 18th-century Vienna. The installation
relates the cityscape of baroque Vienna to Mozart’s person. Another
section shows Mozart’s most important contacts in Vienna: the emperor,
clients, patrons, colleagues, friends, theatre officials, and other
contemporary personalities. Mozart’s relationship to the Freemasons
is also described.
2nd floor: Mozart the musical genius
The presentation on the second floor deals mainly with Mozart as a
composer of operas, with the three major Da Ponte operas taking
pride of place. The Magic Flute section, the final and most opulent
room of the entire tour, shows that Mozart belongs not to one country
or city alone, but to the whole world.
The first-floor apartment - the rooms where Mozart lived
After immersing themselves in Mozart’s world on the upper floors, visitors
reach the first floor and the most authentically preserved part of
the whole building. The Mozart apartment comprises the very rooms
in which Mozart lived with his wife Constanze, his children, three
servants, the dog Gauckerl, and the cage bird Starl.
In the Mozart apartment, the focus is on the intensive, musically productive
two-and-a-half years during which the composer lived in this
house. In Mozart’s time, the apartment was a noisy, busy place. The
Mozarts moved in on 29 September 1784 with their nine-day-old infant
Karl Thomas, who was soon followed by a second child which died after
a few weeks. Apart from the Mozart family, the house was home to
some of the composer’s pupils, like the seven-year-old piano prodigy
Johann Nepomuk Hummel.
There were house concerts and rehearsals, there was laughter and
playing - of chamber music and billiards alike. In the midst of all this
bustle and noise, Mozart wrote the opera Le nozze di Figaro. The Irish
tenor Michael Kelly learned his part here for the premiere, and librettist
Lorenzo Da Ponte talked business with Mozart. The “everyday madness”
is documented by Leopold Mozart in a letter to his daughter
Nannerl on 12 March 1785: “? it is impossible to describe the bustle and
the comings and goings: your brother’s fortepiano has been moved
from this house to a theatre or another house at least twelve times
since I have been here.”
Visitors to the Mozart apartment become caught up in a game involving
the imagination. Where was the billiard table? Where did Mozart
work? Where did the servants sleep? The original furnishings, too, must
be supplied by the imagination. The basis for rediscovering Mozart’s
living conditions is supplied by an index of the composer’s estate,
which meticulously lists large quantities of furniture and household
goods. Portraits and other exhibits from the collection of the Wien
Museum can be seen throughout the apartment. The highlights include
the “Camesina Room”, with examples of the work of the famous
Viennese stucco artist, as well as a rare flute clock from the late 18th
century which plays a melody by Mozart (KV 616).
Mozart Café, shop, multifunctional hall
The exhibition rooms are supplemented by a café on the ground floor
of Domgasse no. 5, the museum shop in the adjacent house, and a
multifunctional event hall for concerts, seminars and special programmes
in the basement of the building. All the details are available
in six languages at
www.mozarthausvienna.at.
A project by Wien Holding, Wien Museum, Raiffeisen Holding Niederösterreich-Wien and
WIENER MOZARTJAHR 2006
Concept and Realisation MozarthausVienna Errichtungs und Betriebsges.m.b.H. in cooperation with Wien Museum
Curators 2nd and 3rd floor: Joachim Riedl,
1st floor: Werner Hanak with Ulrike Spring & Wolfgang Kos
Architects
Atelier Pichelmann, Klaus Becker
Exhibition Design 2nd and 3rd floors: Atelier Pichelmann, checkpointmedia AG
1st floor: Lichtwitz-Büro für visuelle Kommunikation, propeller z, including wood objects by Elsa Prochazka
Inauguration 27.01.2006
Opening Hours daily 10:00 - 20:00
Place
Domgasse 5, 1010 Vienna
Tickets Regular adult Euro 9,-
senior citizens, students Euro 7,-
group rate Euro 6,-
children up to 12 Euro 3,-
school groups (pupils aged up to 14) Euro 3,-
Info
Phone: +43-1-512 17 91
Web
www.mozarthausvienna.at
