The aria

Over the last ten years I have devoted the better part of my life towards the research of this extraordinary woman in Mozart's life, Anna "Nancy" Storace. This effort began in 1999, when upon entering graduate school to persue a Master of Music in vocal performance and pedigogy, I had to choose a subject on which to write my thesis. Being that Mozart was my favorite composer, and I was devoted to the study of the music of the Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic periods in Europe, it didn't make it too difficult for me to decide upon a subject. I chose to base my thesis on the life and career of Nancy Storace, Mozart's first Susanna, and to center it upon their professional and personal relationship and the concert aria, Ch'io mi scordi di te...Non temer amato bene, K 505, which Mozart composed for her as a personal and tender farewell gift upon her departure from Vienna in 1787.

Anna Storace arrived in Vienna in January 1783 to begin rehearsals for the Italian Opera Company that would be opening the following April. It is likely that she first met Mozart during the premier of Antonio Salieri's La scuola di de'gelosi. Mozart would have been in attendance at this premier because he would have been highly interested in the new singers who were being heard for the first time, plus he always made it a point to attend the openings of his fellow composers' operas in order to keep abreast of what they were composing. Mozart would have been extremely impressed and excited over this new and flamboyant little soprano. She would have won him over instantly with her full, velvety voice, her delightful appearance and her marked comedic flare. Anna was truly unique! It wouldn't have taken Mozart long to introduce himself to Anna make his presence known to her.

Anna and Mozart were known to have developed a very close and warm professional relationship, but it is less well-known that she and Mozart were also considered dear friends. She and her other British associate, the Irish tenor, Michael Kelly became quite close to Mozart and it wasn't unusual to find Kelly, Anna, her brother, Stephen and their mother, Elizabeth in the Mozart home for private musicales, soirees and parties. Mozart could also be found in attendance at dinner parties in the Storace apartment as well. It is believed by some of the most prominent and most respected Mozart scholars that Mozart and Anna may have even been romantically involved, as there was ample opportunity and reason for this to be so. However, there is no solid evidence or proof that such a relationship between them existed. The great Mozart historian, Alfred Einstein wrote of their relationship:

Between Mozart and her there must have been a deep and sympathetic understanding. She was beautiful, attractive, an artist, and a finished singer, whose salary at the Italian opera in Vienna attained a figure at that time unheard of.

He continues by stating that after Anna's return to London in 1787, she and Mozart continued their relationship through correspondence by letter:

But he remained in correspondence with Anna Selina. What happened to these letters is a mystery. Anna Selina certainly treasured them, but perhaps before her death, which occurred in Dulwich in 1817, she destroyed them as not intended for the eyes of an outsider.

In addition to the role of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, it is believed that Mozart most certainly composed the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni for Anna. Unfortunately, she was unable to sing it because she returned to London before the opera opened in Prague. Anna did have plans to return to Vienna in 1788, but contract negotiations fell through and the emperor could not offer her the salary that she demanded due to escalations in the ongoing war with Turkey.

When Mozart learned that his British friends, including Anna, would be returning to England he decided that he would like to go with them and see if he could obtain a commission for an opera at the King's Theatre in London. Anna, Stephen, Kelly and Mozart's pupil and friend, Thomas Attwood agreed that this would be a good plan and decided that they would all participate together in procuring a commission for Mozart. However, plans fell through when Mozart's father, Leopold Mozart refused to take his son's children while Mozart got settled in England. It was a disappointed Mozart who then made plans to travel to Prague with Constanze for several performances of Figaro. Just before his departure for Prague Mozart composed the great concert aria, Ch' io mi scordi di te?... Non temer amato bene K505 as a farewell gift for Anna. Upon his return to Vienna, Mozart and Anna performed the piece together at her farewell concert at the Kärntnertor Theater. What makes this concert aria unique and outstanding is the fact that it is actually a concerto for voice and piano. Mozart composed the piano part to be played by himself. Einstein writes,

...the voice and piano carry on a dialogue so intimately interwoven and so heartfelt that one feels the particular intention in every measure. And at the same time the aria is so extended that it seems more like a concerto movement than an aria. We have the impression that Mozart wanted to preserve the memory of this voice, no brilliant soprano and not suited to display of virtuosity, but full of warmth and tenderness; and that he wanted to leave with her in the piano part a souvenir of the taste and depth of his playing, and of the depth of his feeling for her: Few works of art combine such personal expression with such mastery--the intimacy of a letter with the highest grandeur of form...

Nancy returned to London, leaving Vienna on 27 February 1787. Her last glimpse of Mozart would have been from the rear window of her carriage as he stood shivering at the customs house, where he came to see his friends off. As stated earlier, Mozart and Anna would continue their friendship through letters, but they would never see one another again. Anna worked for several years procuring a commission for Mozart in London and would succeed in the fall of 1790. However, by then Mozart's health was starting to fail and economic conditions in Austria were not good, so he was obliged to decline the commission. Anna died from a stroke in August of 1817, but not before burning the letters to her from her friend and perhaps lover, Wolfgang Mozart, as they were "For my eyes only".

English Translation of Italian text:

You ask me to forget you? You advise me calmly to forget you and love another and want that I still live? Ah, No! I would rather die! Come death! I wait for it courageously! To seek consolation from another, to give my love to another only fills my heart with dread! Cruel suggestion! Ah! My despair will kill me. Do not fear, my love will never be changed. Faithful I shall always remain. But my affliction has caused me to falter and now my soul from grief must flee. Are you sighing? O woe outpouring? But all is vain to one who is begging. O Heaven, I cannot express it! Pity me, Heaven, see my anguish, see the grief due to my affection! Has ever such torment plagued so faithful a heart? Has such doom or dejection ever beset such a loyal heart? Hateful galaxies! Vile constellations! Why should you beset me with such sorrow? Ah, why?

I have now begun a new project, a novel, based on the love story between these two extraordinary people. I finished the prologue last night and posted it on A Window to My Soul.

The following is a recording of Mozart's C'hio mi scordi di te, K. 505.