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cahnAnd including Emperor Joseph II!
from Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790:
Joseph's alleged comment to Mozart about the Entführung, "Too many notes", has been taken as evidence of his ignorance. But he probably said something like, "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstrous many notes." It is always necessary to bear in mind, when appraising the emperor's remarks, his peculiar brand of humor or sarcasm. He was usually getting at someone. And he did not use the royal "we". The ears in question were those of the Viennese audience, whom he was mocking for their limited appreciation of Mozart's elaborate music.
(though not gonna lie, I think it is a LOT of notes)
from Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790:
Joseph's alleged comment to Mozart about the Entführung, "Too many notes", has been taken as evidence of his ignorance. But he probably said something like, "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstrous many notes." It is always necessary to bear in mind, when appraising the emperor's remarks, his peculiar brand of humor or sarcasm. He was usually getting at someone. And he did not use the royal "we". The ears in question were those of the Viennese audience, whom he was mocking for their limited appreciation of Mozart's elaborate music.
(though not gonna lie, I think it is a LOT of notes)
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-12 12:19 pm (UTC)Voltaire: Well, even in my memoirs, I cast him as the sorceress Alcina!
Ha, yes. I guess it helped that she and Voltaire had their own relationship as well, that Voltaire seemed to genuinely like her for her, visited and entertained her both in Bayreuth and when she was in Berlin at the same time, and just generally made her laugh, which is something she did not get enough of I'd say.
True. All the other boyfriends weren't people she was friends with, or interested in on their own account.
(I do regret Voltaire didn't manage to persuade Francoise de Graffigny to go to Bayreuth and become Wilhelmine's intellectual lady in residence there!)
Don Quixote: ah, thank you. You know, these days I would assume anynone referring to the Don and to Sancho is either going by pop culture osmosis or by virtue of the musical The Man of La Mancha, but in the 18th century, my money is more on actual reading.
Re: Some more Wilhelmine-Fritz correspondence
Date: 2022-02-12 07:41 pm (UTC)I'm not planning to read it. You know how I am about literature. ;)