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MOZART AND THE PRACTICE OF SACRED MUSIC, 1781-91 a ...

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parts taken by Catarina Cavalieri, Margarethe Spangler, Valentin Adamberger and Ludwig<br />

Fischer. Salieri directed, and Joseph II attended incognito. 73 The most ambitious celebrations<br />

mounted by the congregation took place with Joseph again present on Easter Sunday 1786,<br />

as the former Minoritenkirche was rededicated as the “Italienische Nationalkirche” after two<br />

years of renovation. 74 Eighty singers and instrumentalists were involved, and the church<br />

received special permission from Joseph to perform a musical setting of the litany, Regina<br />

Coeli and Te Deum. 75 The city’s Italian newspaper, the Foglietto di Vienna, reported:<br />

...alle ore 11 poi dal Canonico e scolastico di questa Metropolitana, Conte d’Hengel, venne<br />

celebrato il solenne Servizio Divino con musica del celebre Maestro di Capella signor<br />

Naumann...Indi si cantarono le Litanie e l’Inno consueto similmente con scelta musica, di<br />

composizione del famoso signor Hasse; il tutto eseguito come la mattina da 80 persone tra<br />

Cantanti e Suonatori, sotto la direzione del Maestro di Cappella signor Carlo Frubert [sic]; ed<br />

avendovi cantato la signora Storacce [sic], li signori Benucci, Calvesi, Bussani, Mandini, O. Kelly,<br />

Salvesi ed altri virtuosi, con universale gradimento del numeroso popolo, che vi concorse in quel<br />

giorno. Alla sera dei 19, ultimo giorno delle 40 ore, si cantarono le Litanie, l’Inno e dopo il Te<br />

Deum in musica del prelodato signor Hasse... 76<br />

A report of the celebrations in the Wienerische Kirchenzeitung contains a previously<br />

unknown reference to Nancy Storace, after mentioning the lack of a sermon: “Allein man<br />

hörte da um so mehr Musik, und als Madame Storace zu singen anfieng, kehrete Jedermann<br />

der Monstranze den Rücken, um die Künstlerinn zu schauen.” 77 The congregation’s interest<br />

in Storace suggests that the famous engraving in the Bildergalerie Katholischer Misbräuche of a<br />

singer admired by onlookers had its basis in reality. This event took place on 19 April 1786,<br />

less than two weeks before the premiere of Le Nozze di Figaro, so we may presume that<br />

73 Walther Brauneis, “Die Italienische Congregation in Wien: Geschichte und Zielsetzungen Einer Nationalen<br />

Interessensvertretung im Wien der Mozart-Zeit,” Mitteilungen der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum 47, no.<br />

3/4 (1999): 34-5. See also Angermüller, Dokumente, i.167-69.<br />

74 A rebuilt organ by Franz Xaver Christoph was installed, together with a striking neo-Gothic case, still extant;<br />

Lade, Orgeln in Wien, 82-5.<br />

75 AVA, A-Kultus 311, 427/1786.<br />

76 Quoted in Giovanni Salvadori, La Congregazione Della Chiesa Nazionale Italiana in Vienna (Vienna:<br />

Drescher & Comp., 18<strong>91</strong>), 126-27.<br />

77 WK, 1786:581.<br />

152

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