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As one of our finest interpreters of Mozart's work, Jane Glover is perfectly placed to bring these remarkable women--both real and dramatized--vividly to life. Readers meet Mozart's mother, Maria Anna, and his beloved and devoted sister, Nannerl, perhaps as talented as her brilliant brother but, owing to her sex, destined to languish at home while Wolfgang and their father entertained the drawing rooms of Europe. Readers also meet Mozart's "other family"--his in-laws, the Webers: Constanze, his wife, much maligned by history, and her sisters, Aloysia, Sophie, and Josefa. Aloysia and Josefa were highly talented singers for whom Mozart wrote some of his most remarkable music. Aloysia was the first woman who Mozart truly and passionately loved, and her eventual rejection of him nearly broke his heart. Constanze, though a less gifted singer, proved a steadfast and loving wife. After Mozart's death, his extremely efficient widow ensured that his most enduring legacy, his music, never be forgotten.
Mozart's Women is their story. But it is also the story of the women in his operas, all of whom were--like the real women in his life--restrained by the conventions and strictures of 18th-century society. Yet through his glorious writing, Mozart identified and released the emotions of his characters.
Rich, evocative, and compellingly readable, Mozart's Women illuminates the music, the man and above all, the women who inspired him.
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