Mozart's predecessor - Tuoi Tre Online

Mozart told Josef Mysliveček that he often composed the opening of a piece at night, then went to sleep, and finished the composition the next morning.

Scene from the movie Il Boemo - Photo: ImDb

"May God let me live because He wants to hear the ending of that piece of music." As for Josef Mysliveček, he said that he composed the music all night.

Now, we only know Mozart. Most people no longer remember who Mysliveček was.

But when this conversation takes place in the biographical film about the 18th-century Czech composer Mysliveček, Il Boemo (directed by Petr Václav), currently showing at the European Film Festival in Vietnam (November 14-28), Mozart was just a gifted young boy, while Mysliveček was already a renowned composer. Even the royal family at the time mispronounced Mozart's name.

Not long before that, filmmakers also revisited the life of Chevalier – a composer contemporary with Mozart, who was also very successful during his lifetime but later faded into obscurity, and then created a rivalry between Chevalier and Mozart in which Mozart was overshadowed.

IL BOEMO (THE BOHEMIAN) - Trailer - European Film Festival 2023

But Mozart's animosity towards Chevalier only exists in the imagination of the film industry. Mozart's admiration for Mysliveček, however, is documented in history.

Unlike Mozart, who came from a family of composers, with his father being a renowned composer who actively promoted his son from the very beginning, Mysliveček was the son of a flour mill owner in Prague.

Il Boemo doesn't reveal much about his past; right from the start of the film, we see him as a music teacher. Only later do we learn a little about his background and the strained relationship with his family due to his intense pursuit of music.

The film creates a world of both glory and shame, of pleasure and torment.

On stage, the music soars; behind the scenes, the pleasures and decadence of the aristocracy take over.

Artists, on the other hand, live precariously between the dazzling world of art and the brink of disgrace.

An opera singer might show contempt for the king, yet she is still treated with the same disdain as a prostitute. Meanwhile, the king, while urinating in a chamber pot, discusses music and engages in vulgar conversation, making lewd advances towards the music teacher.

The film oscillates between two color palettes: artistic performances in a golden-orange hue—magnificent yet tinged with darkness; and everyday moments in a white-blue color—cold but also somewhat peaceful.

That contrast mirrors the life of the Czech composer: celebrated and then cast aside, dedicating everything to music for what?

In exchange for passionate, failed romances? For permanent separations? For a gonorrhea contracted from a chaotic life? Or for fleeting fame and lasting oblivion?

Those who once discouraged Mysliveček from pursuing music may now regret that he wasted his life. But do people turn to music to achieve immortality?

Mysliveček of Il Boemo

Perhaps Mysliveček's most beautiful moments weren't when he was healthy and commanded the stage like a god.

The most beautiful scene of Mysliveček, and also the most beautiful musical scene in the film, must be when Mysliveček's face, disfigured by gonorrhea, is wrapped in bandages and wearing a mask like a monster, sitting in front of the harpsichord accompanying his old best friend.

The renowned singer Caterina Gabrielli, now elderly, no longer kept up with musical trends and no longer possessing the appearance of a diva, had her voice captured in the aria Il Caro Mio (My Beloved).

The two friends felt lost in the vast, almost empty room, just as life itself, in the end, was nothing but emptiness.

Yet, amidst that emptiness, something shines gently, like a beautiful melody, a lovely voice, and an old friendship.

There's a saying: "Glory and glory flow eastward like water, all things are like ripples on the waves." Pursuing glory is a mistake. Those who dedicate themselves to art should only do so for the sake of such fleeting moments.

It was Mysliveček who introduced Mozart to the Italian opera tradition.

That influence continues to resonate in the way Mozart wrote arias and overtures, and in the way he developed characters in his later operas.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tien-boi-cua-mozart-20241117101332992.htm