In Austria, locals and visitors alike flock to the city of Vienna and enjoy famous street-lined coffee shops, pastry houses, and visit beautifully preserved Baroque buildings— many of which serve as wintertime venues for the Viennese Ball season. These events continue to create a “carnival-like addiction” for many around the world.  Originally, these events began in the 18th century and were designed for “wearing masks and costumes,” and exclusively served only the Imperial Court. When Mozart was appointed as the Royal Court Composer in 1787, he was in charge of composing “carnival dance music for the Imperial masked balls” at Hofburg Palace.  Yet, during this time, he also composed a new opera for the National Theatre in Prague—Don Giovanni.  

          For Mozart, and similar to most composers, their music is closely aligned with their emotive personalities. His forte was composing music derived from personal experiences of “loves and losses in life,” and many speculate this element to be the “cause of his driving genus.” However, elements of fear and suspicion repeat themselves in his works and life, where Mozart contends with entities of mysterious origins. For example, in Don Giovanni, we have a Don Juan-type character who views women and wine as the "support and glory of humankind.” The story unfolds in melodrama with a touch of comedy. But it’s more subtle inclusion presents a supernatural element that hovers over the narrative like an oppressive canopy. And in his final work, a commissioned requiem delivered by a mysterious messenger: unidentified, caped, and masked, a gravely ill Mozart was unnerved enough to suggest that someone was trying to poison him.

          And so it goes, that Mozart appeared to compose stories that dealt with “the crossing of realms,” characters that straddle boundaries, and combative societies that are “at best, a brewing combination of opposites.” It has been said that his music “displays a netherworld that is not abolished or denied; it is, instead, acknowledged, incorporated, and thus, transcended.” And while it seems that no other opera he scored fits this description better than Don Giovanni, it’s Mozart’s life that mirrors these concepts best. This subject examines the societal milieu during Mozart’s era and investigates the mysterious circumstances that “brought the genius's life to a premature close.” We’ll discover recent evidence that suggests his “equally” talented sister suffered culturally restrictive obstacles, which sadly quelled her own prodigious career. Whether or not Mozart’s end held similarities with Don Giovanni’s end, Russian composer Tchaikovsky said he felt "in the presence of divinity" when viewing Mozart’s original operatic score, which seems to declare Mozart as “the musical genius of his time, and perhaps of all time.”