Austrian Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Love Life Revealed in Rare Letter

Mozart was 26 when he wrote the letter shortly after his arrival in Vienna. While his career was booming after the success of his first opera, his love life was getting “a bit complicated” and he wanted to bring forward his impending marriage to Constanze.

“He is of very strict Catholic descent. The fact that he’s already living with Constanze, that they’re already sleeping together, that’s careless,” said Thomas Venning, Director of Books and Manuscripts at Christie’s. “She (his future mother-in-law, ed.) Is about to send the police on them to get his fiancé back, with of course terrible consequences for his reputation.”

“He is in total crisis and quite beautifully pours out his heart in a totally unfiltered way,” says Venning, who calls Mozart’s “free-spirited behavior” in both his private and professional life “refreshing.” “It says something about Mozart as a kind of revolutionary figure. He is someone who does not follow the old rules.”

Mozart and Constanze married shortly after he wrote the letter and remained together until he died in 1791 at the age of 35.

Mozart wrote many letters during his lifetime, but according to Venning it’s rare to see a letter turn up at auction, and to gain “such a level of insight into his personality and feelings at a pretty crucial time in his life” in the process. .

The letter is expected to raise about 300,000 to 500,000 British pounds, the equivalent of about 350 to 585,000 euros.