Mozart's Women: His Family, His Friends, His Music [Hardcover]

Jane Glover has pulled off a coup des livres with her fresh take on Mozart's life and work..

...required reading for practitioners and will enlighten the most casual listener.

‘Jane Glover has produced a winner, showing us Mozart from a fresh and fascinating viewpoint: the women in his life. Constanze, for instance, emerges a different creature from the way she is usually portrayed, tempting the reader to revise judgement on her. Written in a delightful, accessible style, this is a book that anyone with an interest in Mozart should have. For the singer it is an indispensable treasure trove of information – altogether, hugely enjoyable’ Dame Janet Baker ‘Nowadays it seems that Mozart's genius had always existed, fully formed, from the first. But genius does not flourish in isolation. It is Jane Glover's great gift to show how the women surrounding Mozart – his sister Nannerl, his wife Constanze, and her three talented sisters – all influenced him, making their own contributions to the creation of the most fascinating, dazzling, and complex women on the opera stage’ Judith Flanders, author of Circle of Sisters and The Victorian House ‘Beautifully written and scholarly without seeming so’ Dame Felicity Lott 'I love it, absolutely love it. Especially I love the way you keep erupting onto the page, great surges of enthusiasm or sympathy leaping out of the narrative which is, incidentally, utterly compelling. I'm seeing WAM (which of course is your plan) differently, clearer than I ever have. What a guy. What a book. (and you can quote me on that)' Simon Callow

A major new biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told through the prism of the women in his life

Throughout his life Mozart was inspired, fascinated, amused, aroused, hurt, disappointed and betrayed by women; and he appeared equally fascinating to them. But, first and last, Mozart loved and respected women. His mother, his sister, his wife, her sisters, his patrons, his friends, his lovers and his artists all figure prominently in his life. Jane Glover introduces us to Mozart’s mother, Maria Anna and his beloved and talented sister, Nannerl. We meet, too, Mozart’s ‘other family’, the Webers: Constanze, his wife, much maligned by history, and her sisters Aloysia, Sophie and Josepha. This is their story. But it is also the story of the women in his operas, all of whom were – like his sister, his mother, his wife and entire female acquaintance – restrained by the conventions and strictures of eighteenth-century society. Yet through his glorious writing, he identified and released the emotions of his characters. They hold up the mirror to their audiences and offer inestimable insight, together constituting yet further proof of Mozart’s true genius and phenomenal understanding of human nature. Rich, evocative and compellingly readable, Mozart's Women illuminates the music and the man, but above all, the women who inspired him.

Advance praise for Mozart's Women

‘Jane Glover has produced a winner, showing us Mozart from a fresh and fascinating viewpoint: the women in his life. Constanze, for instance, emerges a different creature from the way she is usually portrayed, tempting the reader to revise judgement on her. Written in a delightful, accessible style, this is a book that anyone with an interest in Mozart should have. For the singer it is an indispensable treasure trove of information – altogether, hugely enjoyable’
Dame Janet Baker

‘Nowadays it seems that Mozart's genius had always existed, fully formed, from the first. But genius does not flourish in isolation. It is Jane Glover's great gift to show how the women surrounding Mozart – his sister Nannerl, his wife Constanze, and her three talented sisters – all influenced him, making their own contributions to the creation of the most fascinating, dazzling, and complex women on the opera stage’
Judith Flanders, author of Circle of Sisters and The Victorian House

‘Beautifully written and scholarly without seeming so’
Dame Felicity Lott

Jane Glover is one of our pre-eminent conductors and a Mozart expert. In her long and hugely successful career she has been Music Director of the Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Artistic Director of The London Mozart Players, and has also held Principal Conductorships of both the Huddersfield and the London Choral Societies. She has conducted all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain and appears regularly at the BBC Proms. She is also a regular broadcaster, with highlights including a television series on Mozart and the radio series Opera House. She lives in London.