Villa Bertram

The Villa Bertram ( Czech Bertramka ) is a villa in Prague district Smíchov . Today it serves as a museum in memory of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .

history

In the 18th century, the grounds of Villa Bertram were still in a decidedly rural area outside the city limits of Prague. The first buyer of the vineyard was a citizen of Lesser Town Prague , Jan František Pimskorn, who bought the property in 1699. Originally there was a vineyard with a wooden house on the site, which the namesake of the later villa, Franz von Bertram, acquired in 1743. Bertram had the original development torn down and he built his summer residence here in the classicism style .

Egon Erwin Kisch wrote the following about this area: The landscape of Smíchov - in German: Laughing Au was the Rococo itself in the Rococo era . The lords of the Bohemian aristocracy owned their pleasure palaces and pleasure gardens here, and those who had a particularly privileged friend had their own tuskulum built in their immediate vicinity, such as the Count Clam for the singer Duschk .

On April 23, 1784, the soprano Josepha Duschk and her husband Franz Xaver Duschk purchased the property for 3525 guilders , which they mainly used as a summer residence. In 1787 they invited their friend Mozart to Prague, whom they had already met since 1777 on the occasion of a visit to Salzburg . A close friendship had developed between Mozart and the couple. The occasion for Mozart's visit was the premiere of the opera Don Giovanni - originally planned for October 14, 1787 - in the Count's Nostitz National Theater (later the Estates Theater) in Prague. At the time, this theater was the most important in the city.

The history of Don Giovanni also includes the creation of the overture for this work: There were only a few days left until the premiere, which was now delayed on October 29, 1787. The desperate director tried in vain to get the overture from Mozart. Mozart had a myriad of musical ideas, but he couldn't be persuaded to write them down on paper. There was a threat of scandal and that is why the energetic Josepha Duschk locked Mozart in his room in the Villa Bertram one evening, remarking that he would only be released after the overture was over. It is not known whether this narrative is actually authentic. However, Mozart actually only handed in the overture on the day of the dress rehearsal (composed on the night of October 27-28) before the premiere.

Mozart felt very much at home in Prague and especially in Villa Bertram. "Yes! My Prague people understand me! ”He is said to have exclaimed after the glorious premiere of Don Giovanni. According to his own statements, he spent the best time of his life here. At the end of August 1791 he stayed again at Villa Bertram and worked there until the beginning of September on the rehearsal and world premiere of the opera La clemenza di Tito . The premiere took place on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia on September 6, 1791, also in the Gräflich Nostitz National Theater.

After Mozart's death, the good relations between the Mozart family and the Duschk couple continued. Mozart's widow Constanze brought her two sons Carl Thomas and Franz Xaver Wolfgang to Villa Bertram, where they found accommodation with the Duschk couple.

After the death of her husband, Josepha Duschk largely withdrew from the public eye. She ran into financial difficulties and had to sell the villa. In 1824 she died in utter poverty in Prague.

The Smíchov district became an industrial area of Prague. Egon Erwin Kisch wrote about it: Already in the first half of the 19th century the gallant character of the area disappeared, and if someone translated the word Smíchov with 'Laughing Au', it was a joke. The pleasure in the pleasure palaces had ceased, for an uninterrupted roar came up that was more threatening than the approaching step of a stone guest. It was the step of a new time. Even Mozart would not have been able to transfer pure angelic tones from the sky-blue sky onto his music paper. Factory chimneys blew thick clouds of smoke into this sky, and high-pitched sirens tore the harmony of the spheres apart. The Laughing Au had become an industrial area .

In 1925, the last owner Mathilda Sliwenská bequeathed the villa to the Mozarteum Foundation in her will . Since the villa could hardly be managed from Salzburg , the villa was sold in January 1929 to the Mozart Association in Prague , which was founded especially for this purpose and from which the 'Czech Mozart Community' ( Mozartová obec) emerged . This set up the villa as a Mozart Museum and made it accessible to the public. In 1956 the property was thoroughly restored and re-established as a Mozart memorial and museum on the occasion of Mozart's 200th birthday. The villa has been a listed building since 1964. In 1986 it passed into state ownership through expropriation, along with its inventory (musical instruments, Mozart's personal belongings). The Velvet Revolution was followed by an 18-year restitution dispute. In December 2009 the villa (but without inventory) was finally awarded to the Czech Mozart Community ( Mozartová obec v České republice ). The house is currently being restored and serves as a Mozart memorial and museum.

literature

Alois Svoboda: Prague. Olympia, Praha 1964 (German translation from Czech)
Johanna Baroness von Herzogenberg : Prague. Prestel-Verlag, Munich 1968

Web links

Bertramka , Prague's tourist portal

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Information from Mozartova obec, Chapter Bertramka ( https://mozartovaobec.cz ), Czech
↑ ^a ^b quoted from Herzogenberg: Prague. P. 342f.
↑ Theuchek couple also owned the house to the three lions at the end of what was then the coal market, where Mozart also lived. The artist couple, but also the Prague people, gave him the few triumphs of his life, and here the street boys were able to sing and whistle the melodies from the opera just performed on the following day. (quoted from Herzogenberg, p. 223)
↑ Franz Anton von Nostitz-Rieneck arranged for the theater to be built in 1781, which is why it bore his name in the early days.
↑ After the Czech ensemble moved out in 1862 because it had its own theater, only German performances were held in the old house. That is why the house was renamed the Royal German State Theater .
↑ The opera was to be premiered on the occasion of Maria Theresa of Austria's marriage to Anton I of Saxony . Since the opera was not finished, however, a performance of the opera Figaro's Wedding took place instead.
↑ cit. to Svoboda: Prague. P. 201
↑ Here the character of the "Commander" from the opera Don Giovanni is alluded to.
^ The Constitutional Court ruled on the return of the Bertramka , Czech Mozart community

[:1-1] Information from Mozartova obec, Chapter Bertramka ( https://mozartovaobec.cz ), Czech

[:0-2] quoted from Herzogenberg: Prague. P. 342f.

[3] Theuchek couple also owned the house to the three lions at the end of what was then the coal market, where Mozart also lived. The artist couple, but also the Prague people, gave him the few triumphs of his life, and here the street boys were able to sing and whistle the melodies from the opera just performed on the following day. (quoted from Herzogenberg, p. 223)

[4] Franz Anton von Nostitz-Rieneck arranged for the theater to be built in 1781, which is why it bore his name in the early days.

[5] After the Czech ensemble moved out in 1862 because it had its own theater, only German performances were held in the old house. That is why the house was renamed the Royal German State Theater .

[6] The opera was to be premiered on the occasion of Maria Theresa of Austria's marriage to Anton I of Saxony . Since the opera was not finished, however, a performance of the opera Figaro's Wedding took place instead.

[7] t. to Svoboda: Prague. P. 201

[8] Here the character of the "Commander" from the opera Don Giovanni is alluded to.

[9] The Constitutional Court ruled on the return of the Bertramka , Czech Mozart community