Meredith’s Reviews > Mozart > Status Update

Johnson: Of the three great opera composers, Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner, Mozart is the most enviable because he was not an opera composer: rather, a composer who wrote operas.

Johnson: Figaro, in the end, shows everyone more or less being sensible, decent, and forgiving — and so happy. That is why it is not only Mozart’s best opera but the one people love, probably more loved than any other in the repertoire.

Johnson: "Too many notes" was a charge often brought against Mozart in his day — and after — though never by true musicians.

Johnson: Evebts in [Mozart’s] life did not transform his music. What did so were events in his imagination.

Johnson: [Franz Xavier] was a dull dog, too, but it is no easy job to be the son of a genius and try to follow the family trade.