Mozart et al.(Salzburg Festival, music)

Salzburg, Austria THIS is Mozart's town--and don't you forget it. Of course, you can't: His portrait greets you at the airport, and it's stamped on all the candy. People dress up as him, on the streets (e.g., in woodwind ensembles). Every January, the local Mozarteum holds a "Mozart Week." Truth is, every week's a Mozart week--and not just in Salzburg, but throughout the musical world.

The American Friends of the Salzburg Festival offers a series of talks; your correspondent is their moderator. Our first speaker is Prof. Dr. Rudolph Angermuller, of the Mozarteum. He is a musicologist and a big authority on Mozart--anything and everything about him. His topic for us is "Mozart and Money." You have perhaps heard that Mozart died a pauper, buried without notice. This is bunk.

Mozart, in fact, earned a ton of money--he was both rich and famous. But he lost a lot of money, too, and he was always sponging. How did he lose it? Gambling, mainly. When he wasn't composing, he was gambling--and when he was in arrears, he composed with a special urgency. We have another Mozart scholar on hand, too: Prof. Dr. Gunther G. Bauer. He has just completed a book on Mozart and gambling. "Did he have what today we would call an addiction?" I ask. "Exactly," comes the answer.

Speaking of bunk: That movie, Amadeus? Bunk--false from beginning to end. But an enjoyable flick, many say.

The Salzburg Festival, as usual, is filled with Mozart, and given prominent place is a production of Cosi fan tutte. This is notable for several reasons, one of which is the youth of its cast--and its conductor. This is Philippe Jordan, born in 1974, son of the venerable Swiss conductor Armin Jordan. Philippe made a big impression in New York last summer, at the Mostly Mozart Festival, and he has Salzburg abuzz, too. A major career awaits him. Indeed, he has already begun it.

Also at the beginning of a major career is Elina Garanca, the Latvian mezzosoprano who is part of this youthful cast. She has everything: voice, technique, personality, stage sense, and looks--lots of it. If you don't think this counts in opera, I have coffee for you to smell. As Dorabella, Garanca fairly dominates this Cosi.

And I'd like to mention the tenor, Saimir Pirgu, who is an excellent singer, although that's not the reason I'd like to mention him: He is an Albanian, an unusual thing to be in opera (or anywhere else). But the beauty part? His character, Ferrando, is one of the two guys who, in the elaborate trick of this opera, disguise themselves as "Albanians"--and here we have a real-live Albanian, pretending to be an Albanian.