Mozart×Bonaparte

full transcript

1. 00:00
   Verashare moment

   You're with Reborn Radio. Coming up: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sits down with Napoleon Bonaparte for TITANS. The subject — On a project they would have started together if their eras had overlapped.
2. 00:12
   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

   So, Napoleon! I hear you crowned yourself Emperor. Very dramatic. Did you have music for that? Please tell me you had music.
3. 00:21
   Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

   Of course I had music. A Te Deum. Adequate. Not memorable, but adequate.
4. 00:28
   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

   Adequate! Mon Dieu, that is the saddest word I have ever heard. You crown yourself—you, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French—and you settle for adequate?
5. 00:39
   Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

   I was concerned with the symbolism, Mozart. The Pope was there. The crown in my own hands. The music was... background.
6. 00:48
   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

   Background! You insult me and I was not even there. Listen, if we had lived at the same time—if you had called on me—I would have written you something magnificent. An opera. A grand coronation opera.
7. 01:02
   Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

   An opera for a coronation? That makes no sense. Operas take hours. I had an empire to run.
8. 01:10
   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

   Not the coronation itself, you goose. For the festivities! The celebrations afterward. We stage it at the Opéra, all of Paris comes, and they see Napoleon not just as conqueror but as patron of the arts. As Caesar Augustus reborn.
9. 01:25
   Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

   Augustus. Yes. Continue.
10. 01:28
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Aha! I have your attention now. So, the opera. It must be about a hero—young, brilliant, rising from nothing. Corsican, perhaps? Who unites a fractured nation through sheer genius and will.
11. 01:41
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Obviously. But it cannot be too transparent. The hero should be... classical. Alexander? Caesar himself?
12. 01:52
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Caesar is boring. Everyone does Caesar. No, no—we use someone more interesting. Someone who transforms himself. What about a soldier who becomes a king? Scanderbeg? No, too obscure. Perseus? Mythological, flattering, the people love a myth.
13. 02:09
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Perseus is a child's tale. I need something with political substance. The hero must demonstrate that destiny and ability justify power. That revolution can produce order.
14. 02:27
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Order! You want order in an opera? My dear Napoleon, operas have passion, betrayal, beautiful women singing about death. They do not have policy discussions.
15. 02:37
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Then what is the point? Entertainment? I can hire acrobats for that.
16. 02:43
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    The point is glory! We show your glory through beauty. The music makes people feel what they should think about you. I do this with counterpoint, with orchestration. You do not tell them 'Napoleon is great'—you make them weep with joy at the sound of his name.
17. 02:58
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Weep with joy. Yes. That is useful. How long would this take you to write?
18. 03:07
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    For you? Six weeks. Maybe eight if I am having fun with the ensembles. I work very fast. Faster than your armies march, I think.
19. 03:16
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    My armies marched from the Rhine to Vienna in five weeks. You cannot write faster than that.
20. 03:23
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    I wrote Don Giovanni in a few weeks! While drinking. Your move, General.
21. 03:28
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Fine. Eight weeks. The premiere would be on the anniversary of my coronation. Every year, we stage it again. It becomes tradition. What do you need from me?
22. 03:42
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    A librettist. A good one—da Ponte, ideally, though I hear he ran off to America. Someone who understands drama and politics both. Also, singers. The best in Europe. And a very large orchestra.
23. 03:56
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    The best singers are expensive.
24. 03:58
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    So is conquering Europe, and yet you managed. I will need a soprano—brilliant, beautiful voice, plays the symbolic figure of France herself. And a tenor for the hero. Heroic, obviously.
25. 04:11
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    France as a woman. I like this. She crowns the hero at the end?
26. 04:17
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    She crowns him, yes, but first she tests him. Three trials, like in the old stories. He must prove his wisdom, his courage, his devotion to the people. Very Masonic. The audience eats that up.
27. 04:31
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    I am not a Mason.
28. 04:32
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    No, but I was! The symbolism works regardless. Light over darkness, reason over chaos. You love that, yes? Enlightenment?
29. 04:41
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    I am the Enlightenment. On horseback. With artillery. What happens in Act Two?
30. 04:48
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Act Two is the crisis. Foreign powers conspire against our hero. They fear his brilliance, his new order. There is a grand battle scene—I use the trumpets and drums, very martial. You will love it. And a moment of doubt.
31. 05:03
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Doubt? No. The hero does not doubt.
32. 05:08
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Every hero doubts! Even for a moment! Otherwise the audience does not believe in him. He is human, then transcendent. That is the drama.
33. 05:17
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    I do not doubt.
34. 05:19
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Well, you should. It would make you more interesting. In any case, the hero doubts, his loyal friend—a baritone, very noble—reminds him of his destiny, and then he triumphs. Big chorus. Everyone on stage. Glorious.
35. 05:34
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    How big is this chorus?
36. 05:36
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    As big as you can afford. Sixty? Eighty? The more voices, the more glorious. They represent the people, united under the hero. It is very moving. I give them a melody that even a child can remember.
37. 05:49
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Children should remember it. It should be sung in the streets. What about the ending?
38. 05:56
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    The ending! The hero is crowned by France herself. A ballet—you must have a ballet, the Opéra demands it. Then the final chorus, apotheosis, the orchestra at full force. Trumpets, timpani, everything. The audience stands. They cheer. You are there in the imperial box, they cheer for you also.
39. 06:19
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    And they associate me with this triumph. With the music. Yes. This works. What do you want for this?
40. 06:30
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    What do I want? Money, obviously. A lot of it. I am always in debt. Also, the title of Imperial Kapellmeister. A nice apartment in Paris. And you attend the premiere, very publicly.
41. 06:43
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    The title I can arrange. The money depends on the result. How much?
42. 06:48
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Upfront? Three thousand florins. Then royalties for every performance. This is reasonable. I am the greatest composer alive.
43. 06:56
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    You have extraordinary confidence for someone who is dead.
44. 06:59
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    I died young because I was poor! If you had paid me properly, perhaps I would have lived to sixty and written you ten operas. Think of what you missed.
45. 07:08
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    I was nineteen when you died. Not yet Emperor. Not yet even a general of significance. History is about timing.
46. 07:18
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Yes, yes, timing. Very tragic. But imagine—just imagine—if we had worked together. I compose the glory, you provide the subject. We would have been unstoppable.
47. 07:31
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    I was already unstoppable.
48. 07:33
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Until you were not. Waterloo, yes? Perhaps you needed better music. A good march can change a battle.
49. 07:39
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    You think music would have stopped the rain? The mud? Blücher's Prussians?
50. 07:45
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    No, but it would have made your legend sweeter. People remember songs longer than battles. They still sing my music. Do they sing about Waterloo?
51. 07:54
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    They remember Waterloo very well, I assure you. But your point is taken. Legacy requires artistry. I understood this. The Code Napoléon, the monuments, the institutions—these are my compositions.
52. 08:12
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Yes, but they do not make people dance. They do not make them cry in their seats. You reorganized Europe; I reorganized the human heart. Different projects.
53. 08:22
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    The heart is useless without order. Without power.
54. 08:26
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    And power is empty without beauty. So we need each other, you see? The conqueror and the composer. The sword and the song. This opera we are discussing—it would have shown that.
55. 08:36
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Would have. If I had hired you in 1805, at Austerlitz—after the great victory—what would you have asked for?
56. 08:45
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Everything. The commission, the apartment, the title, a pension for my wife after my death. I would have demanded you treat artists as you treat your marshals. With honor and money.
57. 08:57
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    My marshals earned their titles in blood.
58. 09:00
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    And I earned mine in ink. Both are hard work. Both serve the state. You build an empire, I build a culture for that empire to cherish. Same goal.
59. 09:09
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Perhaps. But empires fall. Does the culture survive?
60. 09:15
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    My music survived. Your Code survived. So in the end, maybe we both won. Just... not together. And that is the tragedy, I think.
61. 09:24
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Tragedy is a strong word.
62. 09:26
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    It is an opera word. I know many of them. If we had made this opera together, Napoleon—what would you have called it?
63. 09:33
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Something direct. 'The Triumph.' 'The Destiny.' 'The Coronation of the Hero.' Simple. Strong.
64. 09:46
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Terrible titles. All of them. This is why you need a composer. We would call it something like 'La Gloria Immortale' or 'Il Destino Coronato.' Italian sounds better for opera. The vowels.
65. 09:59
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Fine. You choose the title. I choose the message. That is the partnership.
66. 10:06
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Agreed. And in another life, another world, we shake hands and begin. I start writing the overture tomorrow. You start planning the costumes, the staging, the propaganda. We astonish Europe together.
67. 10:22
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    In another life. But not this one.
68. 10:25
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Not this one. Still, we have talked about it now, and that is something. Maybe someone is listening who will write the opera we never made. Stranger things have happened.
69. 10:36
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Stranger things have happened. I came from Corsica and conquered Europe. You came from Salzburg and conquered... what? The ear?
70. 10:50
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    The ear, the heart, the memory. Everything that lasts. So yes, I conquered also. Different territory. Same ambition.
71. 10:59
    Napoleon Bonaparteshare moment

    Then we are both conquerors. Both emperors of our domains. Perhaps that is enough.
72. 11:05
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartshare moment

    Perhaps. But I still think we would have made a brilliant opera.