As exciting as a novel

When you first leaf through the 1.2 kg book, you enjoy the illustrations and quickly gain an astonishing insight into Constanze's rich life with the dates from p. 601 and the final chapter on the interpretation of Constanze as a person. The book then reads like an exciting novel, artistically structured like an opera in overture, interlude and four acts with many cross-references thanks to the numbered chapters - but it is a scholarly work! Countless contemporary witnesses authentically document all events, family, cultural and political circumstances from her ancestors through her youth, her 10 years with Mozart, 29 years with Nissen and 16 years as a double widow until her death at the age of 80: How Mozart meets the Weber family in Mannheim, how the lovers have to defend themselves against their father Leopold, the great collaboration and exciting travels with Mozart despite many pregnancies and illnesses, her singing and pianistic abilities, Mozart's dramatic death with the untraceable grave and the Requiem, her famous salons, her struggle for the publication of Mozart's works, the care of her two sons Carl and Franz Xaver Wolfgang, her endlessly diligent marriage with Nissen in Copenhagen, Vienna and Salzburg, her care for her sisters and her sister-in-law Nannerl, and finally the last struggle that led to the founding of the Mozarteum in Salzburg. All the sources that the author collected throughout Europe are evaluated by her according to their credibility. It is not just a biography of Constanze, but covers the whole of Mozart's life. The book is a vindication of the long misunderstood woman.

Viveca Servatius: Constanze Mozart. A biography, translated from the Swedish by Krister Hanne, 653 p., ill., 80 p. Notes, 28 pp. Sources and literature, 14 p. Index of persons, € 50.00, Böhlau, Vienna et al. 2018, ISBN 978-3-205-20596-8