Mozart's first love. Soprano. The woman who said no to Wolfgang and chose her career instead. Her husband Joseph Lange painted the famous unfinished Mozart portrait. Younger sister Constanze married Mozart instead. Died in Salzburg in 1839.
The Story
Mozart met the Weber family in Mannheim in 1778 and fell hard for Aloysia. She was talented, ambitious, and not particularly interested in a penniless young composer from Salzburg. Leopold wrote furious letters from home urging his son to stop wasting time. Aloysia chose her career.
That career was real. She debuted in Munich in 1778 and secured a position at the Vienna National Singspiel in 1779, earning more than her late father had. She married actor Joseph Lange in 1780, the same Lange who would later paint the famous unfinished Mozart portrait, the one that now hangs in the Mozarteum. Mozart kept writing arias for her voice even after the rejection. "Popoli di Tessaglia" K. 316 requires a G6, one of the highest notes written for a soprano in the repertoire. He composed it for her.
The Weber family's knot with Mozart did not end when Aloysia turned him down. Her younger sister Constanze married him in 1782. Aloysia and Constanze later performed together at a benefit concert in 1794 in Vienna. The sisters eventually ended up in the same Salzburg flat in their final decades, sharing a kitchen near Sebastiansfriedhof, three of them widowed, with Sophie the youngest. Aloysia died in 1839. Constanze died three years later. Both are buried at St. Sebastian's Cemetery.
