It seems that Mozart died of a variety of afflictions which all came together during a spell of miserable winter weather of the type so brilliantly described by Graham Greene in The Third Man. (The Viennese died in droves from the cold and lack of penicillin, and men with jackhammers interred the dead.) On his deathbed was the unfinished Requiem, commissioned by a mysterious aristocrat who refused to state his name (perhaps intending to pass the composition off as his own) and who, to the spooked, feverish composer, seemed like a messenger from the realm of the dead, By then, Mozart had composed more than six hundred pieces of music. During this anniversary year, most everything he ever wrote will be heard somewhere in the world. Our "Magnificence on Stage" calendar features the best events in Vienna through the rest of 2006.

Mozart would recognize parts of Vienna's old center, which was so faithfully rebuilt after the war, and he would surely be pleased with the Theater an der Wien's transformation into an opera house that will feature his works. His old friend Emanuel Schikaneder, the actor, writer, and impresario, built it in part from the proceeds of The Magic Flute, their great Singspiel, and it opened in 1801.

And yet, as we planned our tour, I realized how much had changed, not only since his time but also in my own. The city seems bigger, better, younger today; there's a pulse to the place I'd not noticed before. What a pity no modern composer exists to put it all to music.

Vienna In Three Movements
It is fun to imagine Mozart roaming his city today. He would have delighted in the concert halls built in the past two centuries but also in the parks and markets, the bars and cafés—all open to the public revelry he so enjoyed.

The numbers in the tours refer to the map, which is available for download here.

Tour One
The ornate aria palazzo called the [1] Staatsoper was designed by Eduard van der Nüll and August von Siccardsburg, who were both dead by the time the theater opened with Mozart's Don Giovanni in May 1869. Van der Nüll committed suicide after a belittling comment by Emperor Franz Josef I, and his friend and partner collapsed of grief. Inevitably, the theater became such a beloved fixture of Viennese cultural life that its rebuilding following the war was a priority, and the Staatsoper reopened in 1955, conducted by unrepentant Nazi holdover Karl Böhm.

The heavily subsidized opera house attracts conservative productions populated by star singers. They often stay at the [2] Hotel Sacher, which has emerged from recent renovations with its old-world charm largely intact, expanded public areas, and a new café opposite the first but not last Starbucks.