Livret-Mozart-Levin-Poulet-La-Goillotte-Le-Palais-des-D%C3%A9gusteurs

was unanimously elected to membership of the
Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna.
Several operas date from this period. Mozart often
composed them at speed, waiting for singers who
arrived at the last minute before he could write
their arias, and having to adapt to changes in the
libretti.
After completing an opera in March 1770, Mozart
turned his attention back to the string quartet, "to
pass the time" as his father put it. In actual fact,
he had fallen in love. But he was in Italy, sad to
be separated from the woman he yearned for
who was still in Salzburg. He was 16 years old.
The string quartet was not yet regarded as the
Holy Grail of all musical composition; it would
eventually acquire this status, becoming the
ultimate test that many composers would only
tackle with fear and respect. But Mozart had
already made it his confidant. In a few months,
between late 1772 and early 1773, he would
write six of them. These are rare examples of
Mozart works that were not composed to order for
a commission.
In the service of Colloredo
(1773-1781)
At 16, he wrote eight symphonies (Nos. 14 to
21) in ten months. The following year, also in
Salzburg, he wrote another five (Nos. 22 to 27) in
two months.
Relationships with his new patron, Prince-
Archbishop Hieronymus von Colloredo, were not
good. It is not the place to examine them here,
but Mozart was increasingly aware that being in
service to a master was costing him his creative
freedom. He expressed this in a letter to his father
dated 10 October 1777: "If, in the meantime,
I get no situation, eh, bien! I shall still have the
resources to go to Italy. [...] And I am far happier
when I have something to compose. It is my chief
delight and passion. [ … ] Even when I hear an
opera discussed, or am in a theatre myself and
hear singing, oh! I really am beside myself!" His
emphasis on opera is worth noting.
In September 1777, he undertook his first journey
without his father, Colloredo having refused to
give him leave. So he set off with his mother,
going first to Germany. On 8 November 1777,
he fell under the spell of a young woman and
immediately wrote an arietta in French for her,
Oiseaux, si tous les ans. On the same day, he wrote
a letter to his father, including this passage which
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