A vampiric soprano whose blood has mingled with Mozart's has picked up his musical talents and lives out several musical careers, traveling around the world with her mysterious assistant, Ugo, and performing concerts at the top opera houses, until a relentless vampire hunter aims to silence her--forever. Original.

This volume of essays on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart reflects scholarly advances made over the last thirty years. The studies are broad and focused, demonstrating a large number of viewpoints, methodologies and orientations and the material spans a wide range of subject areas, including biography, vocal music, instrumental music and performance. Written by leading researchers from Europe and North America, these previously published articles and book chapters are representative of both the most frequently discussed and debated issues in Mozart studies and the challenging, exciting nature of Mozart scholarship in general. The volume is essential reading for researchers, students and scholars of Mozart's music.

Comprehensive and engaging exploration of Mozart's greatest works, focussing on his dual roles as performer and composer in Vienna.

A portrait miniature of a cherubic boy with a wig was discovered in Salzburg in 2018. It is mounted on a bonbonnière made of papier-mâché and tortoiseshell. The provenance of the box of sweets is Paris. Could this be a portrait of W. A. Mozart from Versailles? The detective trail leads to Salzburg, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. Laboratory testing authenticates the painting and the box. Stefaan Missinne discovers the "smoking gun" in the silver frame. The guilloche pattern is the linking orphic attribute. Facial biometrics of the boy confirm it is a ten-year-old. Mozart was ten while in Paris in 1766. The Belgian author endorses the bonbonnière as a unique Louis XV box of sweets, suggesting that it is a tribute to W. A. Mozart as an Austrian child prodigy. "An exceptional finding in a Salzburg antique shop leads, like an international research thriller, from the Mozarteum in Salzburg to the archives of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, from the Louvre and the Royal French Court in Paris to the Imperial collections of the Habsburgs. A small, expensive and specially heralded box – the Mozart portrait box – portrays a unique, royally uniformed boyish Mozart as a composer, musician and prodigy. A wonderful artifact that allows us to sense Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a young Austrian musical genius. Stefaan Missinne has made a significant discovery with international appeal and world interest." Sir James Constable, Harvard University Fellow "Just as in Greek mythology Orpheus was able to sweep his fellow human beings away with his beguiling song, so the author, Prof. Dr. Stefaan Missinne, succeeds in this compact, scientific treatise where he documents and presents striking evidence of a portrait of the youthful Mozart from Paris, dating from 1766. In so doing, he allows the striking traces and circumstances of a small, collectible, but otherwise inconspicuous artefact to speak to us and form a significant whole that addresses us today in a most meaningful way." Archduke Dr. Michael Salvator Habsburg Lothringen

To enable readers to grasp the cumulative complexity of contemporary celebrity culture, this book explores dynamics of the celebrity experience in recent centuries and up to the present day.

On May 27th, 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart met a flirtatious little starling in a Viennese shop who sang an improvised version of the theme from his Piano Concerto no. 17 in G major. Sensing a kindred spirit in the plucky young bird, Mozart bought him and took him home to be a family pet. For three years, the starling lived with Mozart, influencing his work and serving as his companion, distraction, consolation, and muse. Two centuries later, starlings are reviled by even the most compassionate conservationists. A nonnative, invasive species, they invade sensitive habitats, outcompete local birds for nest sites and food, and decimate crops. A seasoned birder and naturalist, Lyanda Lynn Haupt is well versed in the difficult and often strained relationships these birds have with other species and the environment. But after rescuing a baby starling of her own, Haupt found herself enchanted by the same intelligence and playful spirit that had so charmed her favorite composer. In Mozart's Starling, Haupt explores the unlikely and remarkable bond between one of history's most cherished composers and one of earth's most common birds. The intertwined stories of Mozart's beloved pet and Haupt's own starling provide an unexpected window into human-animal friendships, music, the secret world of starlings, and the nature of creative inspiration. A blend of natural history, biography, and memoir, Mozart's Starling is a tour de force that awakens a surprising new awareness of our place in the world.