Maria Sophie Weber (1763–1846) was a singer of the 18th and 19th centuries. She was the younger sister of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
's wife,
Constanze, and is remembered primarily for the testimony she left concerning the life and death of her brother-in-law.
Life
She was born into a musical family, the youngest of four sisters all of whom became trained singers; two achieved professional fame: the eldest sister
Josepha Weber
Maria Josepha Weber (later Josepha Hofer, Josepha Meier; 1758 – 29 December 1819) was a German soprano of the classical era. She was a sister-in-law of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the first to perform the role of The Queen of the Night i ...
and the second eldest
Aloysia Weber
''Aloysia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. They are known generally as beebrushes. . Her mother was
Cäcilia Weber
Cäcilia Cordula Weber (née Stamm; 23 October 1727 – 22 August 1793) was the mother of Constanze Weber and the mother-in-law of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Biography
She was born in Mannheim, the daughter of Johann Otto Stamm, a government secreta ...
(née Stamm). She moved with the family, first to Munich, then to Vienna, following the burgeoning career of Aloysia. Sophie herself sang at the
Burgtheater
The Burgtheater (literally:"Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater"), originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in Vi ...
in the 1780–1781 season,
[Clive, 172] but apparently did not make any kind of long-term success as a singer.
When Mozart moved to Vienna in 1781, and lodged for a time with the Weber family, he seems to have flirted with both Sophie and Constanze (the latter of whom he eventually courted and married). The incomplete Allegro in B flat
KV 400, written by Mozart at this time, contains (in W. Dean Sutcliffe]'s words) "a self-contained melodic episode in G minor, with the names of Sophie and Costanze
''sic''Weber inscribed above a pair of prolonged sigh figures." In a letter of 15 December 1781, Mozart described Sophie as "good-natured but feather-brained." In 1782, when Mozart and Constanze were married, she was the only Weber sister who was present at the ceremony.
When Mozart died in December 1791, 28-year-old Sophie, the last unmarried Weber daughter, lived with Cäcilia but was frequently present in the Mozart household during the composer’s brief but harrowing final illness and death, and helped Constanze care for her dying husband.
She was married on 7 January 1807 in Djakovar,
Slavonia
Slavonia (; hr, Slavonija) is, with Dalmatia, Croatia proper, and Istria, one of the four historical regions of Croatia. Taking up the east of the country, it roughly corresponds with five Croatian counties: Brod-Posavina, Osijek-Baranja ...
(today called
Đakovo
Đakovo (; hu, Diakovár) is a town in the region of Slavonia, Croatia. Đakovo is the centre of the fertile and rich Đakovo region ( hr, Đakovština ).
Etymology
The etymology of the name is the gr, διάκος (diákos) in Slavic form đ ...
, in
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
) to
Jakob Haibel Jakob Haibel (20 July 1762 Graz – 24 March 1826 Đakovo) was an Austrian composer, operatic tenor and choirmaster.
Biography
Around 1789, Haibel joined Emanuel Schikaneder's company of performers at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden. While ther ...
(1762–1826), a tenor singer, actor, and composer; he was the author of a successful
Singspiel
A Singspiel (; plural: ; ) is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera. It is characterized by spoken dialogue, which is alternated with ensembles, songs, ballads, and arias which were often strophic, or folk-like ...
that was performed many times by the theatrical troupe of
Emanuel Schikaneder
Emanuel Schikaneder (born Johann Joseph Schickeneder; 1 September 1751 – 21 September 1812) was a German impresario, dramatist, actor, singer, and composer. He wrote the libretto of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera ''The Magic Flute'' and was t ...
.
Haibel, who is said by some to have left his first wife for Sophie, was the cathedral choirmaster in Djakovar.
[ Lorenz, Michael: "Neue Forschungsergebnisse zum Theater auf der Wieden und Emanuel Schikaneder", ''Wiener Geschichtsblätter'', 4/2008, (Vienna: Verein für Geschichte der Stadt Wien, 2008, 15–36.] Following Haibel’s death in 1826, Sophie moved to
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the ...
where Constanze, for the second time a widow, was living. After 1831 they were joined by their similarly widowed sister Aloysia, who died in 1839. The two younger sisters lived there together until Constanze’s death in 1842.
Sophie outlived her younger nephew,
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (26 July 1791 – 29 July 1844), also known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jr., was the youngest child of six born to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze and the younger of his parents' two surviving children. ...
, by two years and died in Salzburg in 1846 at age 83.
Remembrances of Mozart
Sophie's own remembrances of Mozart and his death, described by the Grove Dictionary author as "moving," come from a letter she wrote to Constanze's second husband
Georg Nikolaus von Nissen
Georg Nikolaus von Nissen (sometimes Nicolaus or Nicolai; 22 January 1761 – 24 March 1826) was a Danish diplomat and music historian. He is the author of one of the first biographies of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, still used today as a s ...
, for the purpose of helping with the biography of Mozart that Nissen and Constanze were preparing. She was also interviewed by
Vincent
Vincent ( la, Vincentius) is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, which is derived from the Latin word (''to conquer'').
People with the given name Artists
*Vincent Apap (1909–2003), Maltese sculptor
*Vincent van Gogh ...
and
Mary Novello
Mary Victoria Cowden Clarke (née Novello; pen names, M. H. and Harry Wandsworth Shortfellow; 22 June 1809 – 12 January 1898) was an English author, and compiler of a concordance to Shakespeare.
Early life and education
Mary Victoria Novello ...
in 1829 during the journey they undertook to gather information about Mozart. For some of her remembrances, see
Death of Mozart
On 5 December 1791, the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at his home in Vienna, Austria at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death have attracted much research and speculation.
The principal sources of contention are: (1) Whether Moza ...
.
References
Notes
Sources
*Clive, Peter (1993) ''Mozart and his Circle: A Biographical Dictionary''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
*
Deutsch, Otto Erich (1965) ''Mozart: A Documentary Biography''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Includes an English translation of Sophie's letter to Nissen, describing Mozart's death.
*''
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...
'', online edition, Philipp Spitta: "Weber"
*Sutcliffe, W. Dean (2003) Review of Richard Jones, ed., ''Mozart: Mature Piano Pieces''. ''Music and Letters'' 84:342–344.
*
*For the passage in the Allegro K. 400 mentioned above, see .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Sophie
1763 births
1846 deaths
Mozart family
18th-century Austrian women singers
Musicians from Baden-Württemberg
19th-century Austrian women