A Sibling Rivalry Played Out Over Keyboards The Other Mozart at Here Arts Center
Laura Collins-HughesJune 30, 2014: “Do you know what it says on my gravestone?” the woman asks. “ ‘Maria Anna von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg. The sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.’ ” Poor Maria Anna. Do you suppose she knows that Wolfie, her little brother, is the reason she piqued our interest? Even in the decidedly feminist solo show The Other Mozart, at Here — written and performed by Sylvia Milo — the story of the thwarted, forgotten sister is inextricable from that of her sibling. As touring prodigies on the 18th-century European concert stage, the Mozart children started out together, whisked from city to city by their ambitious father, Leopold. Eventually, Maria Anna, nicknamed Nannerl, was left at home — not for lack of talent at the keyboard, she tells us, but because her parents worried that continuing to perform in public would damage her marriage prospects. “Music will always be your ornament,” her mother says, and the daughter’s world grows smaller.
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