''Letters, Riddles and Writs'' is a one act opera for television by

Michael Nyman Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...

broadcast in 1991. The story is devised by Nyman, with a

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Jeremy Newson ''Shock Treatment'' is a 1981 American musical comedy film directed by Jim Sharman, and co-written by Sharman and Richard O'Brien. It is a follow-up to the 1975 film ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show''. While not an outright sequel, the film doe ...

and Pat Gavin that incorporates Emily Anderson's English translations of correspondence and other texts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the subject of the opera. The opera premiered on the BBC television miniseries, '' Not Mozart'', directed by Newson and Gavin. Ute Lemper played the role of Mozart. Nyman appears as a court pianist instructed to play an "offending extract" of the ''String Quartet in E flat major, K. 428'' when

Joseph Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...

( Julian Glover) accuses Mozart of musical

plagiarism Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...

in court, and Mozart complains that Nyman has slowed down his

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

s. This section of the opera is an opera buffa-style interlude. The majority of the opera is more serious. Extracts of the opera are featured on '' The Michael Nyman Songbook'' and ''

Mozart 252 ''Mozart 252'' is a 2008 album by Michael Nyman (his 58th release) with the Michael Nyman Band, Hilary Summers, and Andrew Slater, celebrating the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth. Although "Revisiting the Don," one of o ...

''. The film also features David Thomas (

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing thr ...

) as

Leopold Mozart Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (November 14, 1719 – May 28, 1787) was a German composer, violinist and theorist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook ''Versuch einer gründlichen ...

and Tony Rohr as Ludwig van Beethoven.

External links

* Operas by Michael Nyman Operas for television English-language operas Operas One-act operas Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in fiction Cultural depictions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Joseph Haydn Operas set in the 18th century Operas based on real people {{English-opera-stub