Mozart!

MOZART! A two-act musical by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay

Book and lyrics: Michael Kunze
Music and orchestration: Sylvester Levay
Poetic translation into Lithuanian: Viktorija Streiča, Kristina Siurbytė
Premiere: October 6, 2023
Vereinigte Bühnen Wien
Worldwide Stage Rights: VBW International GmbH

With the musical MOZART!, Austrian creators present a figure from Austria’s rich history and a genius of the musical world: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). One of the most famous classical composers of all time, he captivated audiences with his masterful melodies and was also notorious for an extravagant lifestyle reminiscent, incidentally, of many modern pop stars. After a dazzling and extraordinarily rapid career, he died young, at just 35.

The plot of MOZART! reveals the conflict between its protagonist and the world around him. Although the story unfolds in the 18th century, modern audiences will immediately recognise the problems the protagonist faces and find many connections with their own experience. Mozart confronts an unavoidable fate and the drama of personal growth, making his story moving and timeless.

MOZART! is the brilliance of rock in a Rococo world. The collision of styles, and the irreconcilable face-off between past and present, reflect the ambiguity of the protagonist’s identity. As a man, Mozart feels stifled by the traditions of the Salzburg court: as an artist, he is merely a servant to the aristocracy. Yet he longs for creative and personal freedom—to live his own life, dream, and also carouse, play cards and love. Mozart, the former child prodigy, is relentlessly pursued by the genius within him, “the porcelain child” Amadeus, who writes music without pause and is visible only to Mozart and the audience.

This moving psychological ambiguity is underscored by composer Sylvester Levay’s musical concept. The score combines vivid modern genres—ballads, ragtime and rock—with subtle, original Rococo melodies by Mozart, heard whenever Amadeus, Mozart’s grumbling, childlike alter ego, sits at the piano.

Rather than focus on the prevailing myth of the brilliant composer, the musical presents the legendary Mozart as flawed and fragile—and therefore deeply relatable. The musical MOZART! seeks to free Mozart’s personality from clichés and superficial adoration, allowing audiences to see and feel him as a real, living, breathing person.

The world premiere of MOZART! took place at Theater an der Wien in Vienna in 1999. The first international premiere was in Hamburg in 2001. Productions have been staged in nine countries: Austria, Belgium, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Japan, South Korea and Sweden, and in seven languages: Czech, Flemish, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean and Swedish. More than 2,300 performances have been staged, and over 2.5 million people have seen the musical.

The cast includes the theatre’s performers and guest soloists, artists from the theatre choir and ballet, and students of the Mikas Petrauskas School of Performing Arts