Not quite a year later the Mozarts were off again, this time to Vienna,
for the betrothal festivities of the Archduchess Maria Josepha and King
Ferdinand of Naples. But their great expectations were hardly realized.
A smallpox epidemic in the capital carried off the royal bride, and
Leopold fled with his family to Olmütz, where both the children
contracted the disease. Wolfgang lay blind for nine days and for some
time had to be careful of his eyes. Only on Christmas Eve were they well
enough to set out again. On their return to Vienna, Maria Theresia
received them kindly, but things had changed. Economy was the order of
the day: the aristocracy followed the example set by the imperial
household, musical activities were reduced, and the Mozarts felt the
pinch. Interest in the prodigies diminished.
Joseph II, who had succeeded his mother on the throne, expressed a
desire to hear in Vienna an opera of the twelve-year-old boy’s
composition and suggested such a work to the lessee of the court
theater, Giuseppe Afflisio. The result was _La Finta semplice_, its
libretto based on a Goldoni farce, and it was arranged that the composer
should lead it from the harpsichord. Nothing came of the scheme,
however, presumably because of intrigues.
The youth was partly consoled for this check by a noted physician, the
celebrated Dr. Anton Mesmer (an early practitioner of mesmerism), at
whose suburban home the one-act German _Singspiel_, _Bastien und
Bastienne_, based on a parody of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s famous pastoral
_Le Devin du village_, was performed. The little piece for all its
simplicity lives on. Perhaps the most striking thing about the score is
the fact that the prelude, or _intrada_, begins with the theme that was
to be the main subject of Beethoven’s _Eroica_.
The travelers came back to Salzburg early in 1769. The trip had not been
a financial profit, but Wolfgang was undoubtedly richer in experience
and had added to his creative store. The Archbishop delighted them by
ordering a performance of _La Finta semplice_, though he had no genuine
_opera buffa_ personnel at his disposal. The leading soprano part of
Rosina was sung by Maria Anna Haydn, Michael Haydn’s wife. The year was
largely devoted to further study and composition—chiefly of masses and
other church music written at the command of the friendly Archbishop
and, in addition, of symphonies and other forms of “entertainment” music
for garden parties, festivities, and social functions of the high-placed
and well-to-do. And Wolfgang was appointed concertmaster in the
archiepiscopal orchestra.