The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #12681 Message #3773393
Posted By: keberoxu
17-Feb-16 - 03:17 PM
Thread Name: 'Musical' Novels
Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
One composer who would be a challenge is Franz Josef Haydn. Not because he had no relationships -- he enjoyed wine, women, and song as much as most men. But Haydn was an uncommonly GOOD human being, not a saint, simply good. They left Haydn out of "Amadeus," I would guess, partly for that reason. It's easy to demonize Salieri; it's convenient to play up the scatological humor in Mozart's letters. It's quite another matter to make a case for a really good man.
The Haydn/Mozart mentor/friend relationship was a remarkable one, and I despair of ever seeing it fictionalized or dramatized, unless I have missed something and this has already been done.
There are three dramatic incidents in the Haydn/Mozart connection that I would love to see acted out, but it will only happen in my dreams:
the moment when Haydn addresses Mozart's father Leopold in public to tell him what an exceptional composer his son is.
Haydn leaving Austria for England, and a tearful Mozart bidding him goodbye, and saying in unconscious prophecy that he fears that they will never see each other again.
Old Haydn, enjoying the fulfillment of his life with success in London, receiving the news that young Mozart is dead -- and watching Haydn's heart break, as though he had literally lost a son.