Proper send-off for Mozart at Clifden’s Arts Festival

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

A small local choral group, Cantairí Chonamara, will join forces with Galway Tribal Choir and the RTÉ ConTempo Quartet this Sunday to give Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart the funeral send-off he never had – a full 228 years after his death. Music to Die For is the final event of this year’s Clifden Arts Festival and will take place at 8.30pm in St Joseph’s Church this Sunday, September 29.

Mozart died on December 5, 1791 of an unknown plague-like cause. His corpse caused such a stench that no autopsy could be performed. His death was caused by what the Viennese thought was the contagious ‘military fever’, so with only a blessing from a priest, he was rushed off to St Mark’s Cemetery, five kilometres outside the city, for interment. Neither his wife, Constanze, nor his only sister, Nannerl (Maria Anna), were present and the few of his friends who followed the coffin took refuge in an inn due to bad weather. Because Mozart went into a commoner’s grave, no records of his burial were kept.

But now Clifden is giving the great composer and performer the final service he deserved.

A full funeral service for Mozart, led by ‘Archbishop Migassi of Vienna’ will take place in St Joseph’s Church, when Constanze Mozart and her sister Josepha will be joined by Maria Anna Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder, the Magic Flute Impresario, and little Karl Thomas Mozart. Friend and colleague Antonio Salieri will give the eulogy.

A replica 1800s coffin has been constructed for the event and there are rumours that the Viennese City Coroner has been seen in the locality. Mourners are asked to attend in suitable attire.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.