Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Mozart as traveller

How many years of his too-short life did Mozart spend on the road? He traveled under conditions we would consider hideous. Yet he didn't seem to object much to the cold, the bumpiness, the length of time it took to go from one place to another. Sometimes he traveled in rented carriages. At times he, or his father, owned a horse and carriage. We think nothing of our celebrities jetting or bussing (their own, of course) from one venue to another and climbing up on the stage to perform, but can we imagine what Mozart's life was like until he settled in the ironically fateful Vienna?