Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

There are large amounts of material on Mozart in every language on earth! These are my favourite sites.

  • The International Mozarteum Foundation of Salzburg, founded in 1880, promotes the art of music and the figure of the great composer himself. The site is in English, German, and Japanese. It is useful for anyone organising a visit to the Maestro’s native city and wanting to go to concerts and conventions. What’s more, linking through this address you can look at the scores of all Mozart’s compositions—for free!
  • The Mozart Project is a lovely and well-structured site. It is particularly good for the chronology of Mozart’s life, month by month, matching relevant biographical and artistic facts with historical world events.
  • European Mozart Ways, in English and German, puts forward an interesting manner of getting closer to Mozart—by virtually passing through the stops on his European trips. Running through the lengthy list of cities you ask yourself when he found the time to compose, given that he was always going along!
  • In 1770, at fourteen years of age, Mozart was awarded the Maestro Compositore diploma at the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna. Even today this prestigious institution, founded in 1666, cultivates and promotes the art of music through concerts, conferences, specialist courses for musicians, congresses and exhibitions. The site is in Italian.
  • The Associazione Mozart Italia aims to deepen and develop studies of the life and works of the Maestro. The site is in English, German and Italian. There is also a page through which you can hear some compositions.
  • Libretti d’opera italiani is dedicated to libretti written in Italian. There are many libretti available, free to be looked at and even printed out—among which, naturally, are Mozart’s masterpieces.
  • For anyone who wants to get their bearings among the hundreds of portraits of Mozart (authentic, false, controversial, not to speak of caricatures and cartoons), and to try to work out who the man actually was, you can visit MozartPortraits.com.
  • I also recommend that all lovers of the Maestro should visit the MozartForum, a fantastic site dedicated to discussing him, his work, and his world. You can share your own information and contact other fans or even experts, to ask them questions.
  • If you want to have fun, check out Prima la Musica, the Official Weblog of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart. Concede to the fantasy!
  • If you’d like to listen to some really good music while you are on your computer, you could visit Accuradio, a multichannel Internet radio station. On the classical music page, Mozart has a section all to himself—to open just click on his portrait. Happy listening!

 

Novel and Historical Novel

  • First of all, check out my Goodreads page! This site, as I’m sure you know, aims to put people together who love to read. You register and then post your books into a virtual bookshelf—you say what you think of the books and can get in touch with the users that you have most affinity with. You can also write reviews and comments. Watch out: this site is addictive (I happen to know something about that).
  • I’d like to mention the Rita Charbonnier Official Forum, kindly hosted by Internet Book Database. Check out my page and discuss Mozart’s Sister with other readers and with me! iBookDB is a bank of data on contemporary literature. It collects reviews and interviews with writers, organises a monthly giveaway, and puts together readers with similar tastes.
  • The Historical Novel Society, founded in 1997, promotes historical fiction by organising conferences and publishing a magazine. In the site there is a definition of the genre, with links to various essays that explore, amongst other things, the interesting problem of “truth”. You can also find reviews of all the historical novels published in England and the USA, in chronological order.
  • Historical Fiction Network catalogues a huge number of titles, compiles best-seller lists and publishes authors’ biographies—with links to a range of forums and discussions groups.
  • Historical Fiction is dedicated to fans of the subject, and is above all a virtual meeting place.
  • You can find lots of reviews and interviews in Curled Up With A Good Book. This site also has a competition with books offered as prizes, and you can subscribe to the newsletter, which lists the most interesting new publications.

Finally, these are sites belonging to a few authors of fantastic historical novels in which music has a fundamental role:

  • Susanne Dunlap, author of Emilie’s Voice, Liszt’s Kiss, and the forthcoming The Musician’s Daughter
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