All Topics  
Josepha Weber

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Josepha Weber
 
 
  Topics Josepha Weber Topic Home

(Maria) Josepha Weber (later Josepha Hofer, Josepha Mayer; 1758 – December 29 1819) was a German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 soprano
Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....
 of the classical era
Classical period (music)

The dates of the Classical period in Western music are generally accepted as 1750 to 1825. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the 9th century to the present....
. She was a sister-in-law of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
, and the first to perform the role of The Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
.

Life
She was born in Zell im Wiesental
Zell im Wiesental

Zell im Wiesental is a town in the L?rrach in Baden-W?rttemberg, Germany. It is situated in the Black Forest, on the river Wiese, 26 km northeast of Basel, and 32 km south of Freiburg....
, in Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg

Baden-W?rttemberg is one of the 16 States of Germany of the Federal Republic of Germany. Baden-W?rttemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine?but one which has some of its major cities straddling the banks of the Neckar River ....
, Germany, the daughter of Fridolin Weber. She had three younger sisters (in descending order of age): Aloysia
Aloysia Weber

Maria Aloysia Louise Antonia Weber was a Germany soprano, remembered primarily for her association with the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart....
, who was an early love interest of Mozart and sang in his later operas; Constanze
Constanze Mozart

Constanze Mozart was the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart....
, who married Mozart in 1782; and Sophie.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Josepha Weber'
Start a new discussion about 'Josepha Weber'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


(Maria) Josepha Weber (later Josepha Hofer, Josepha Mayer; 1758 – December 29 1819) was a German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 soprano
Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....
 of the classical era
Classical period (music)

The dates of the Classical period in Western music are generally accepted as 1750 to 1825. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the 9th century to the present....
. She was a sister-in-law of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
, and the first to perform the role of The Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
.

Life


She was born in Zell im Wiesental
Zell im Wiesental

Zell im Wiesental is a town in the L?rrach in Baden-W?rttemberg, Germany. It is situated in the Black Forest, on the river Wiese, 26 km northeast of Basel, and 32 km south of Freiburg....
, in Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg

Baden-W?rttemberg is one of the 16 States of Germany of the Federal Republic of Germany. Baden-W?rttemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine?but one which has some of its major cities straddling the banks of the Neckar River ....
, Germany, the daughter of Fridolin Weber. She had three younger sisters (in descending order of age): Aloysia
Aloysia Weber

Maria Aloysia Louise Antonia Weber was a Germany soprano, remembered primarily for her association with the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart....
, who was an early love interest of Mozart and sang in his later operas; Constanze
Constanze Mozart

Constanze Mozart was the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart....
, who married Mozart in 1782; and Sophie. Her half-first cousin (son of her father's half brother) was the composer Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a Germans composer, conducting, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romanticism school....
.

Josepha grew up mostly in Mannheim
Mannheim

Mannheim is a city in Germany. With 327,318 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-W?rttemberg after the capital Stuttgart....
, and moved with her family first to Munich
Munich

Munich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. Munich is located on the River Isar north of the Northern Limestone Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg....
 then to Vienna
Vienna

Vienna is the Capital of Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million...
, following the singing career of her sister Aloysia.

Following her performance as the Queen of the Night at the (highly successful) premiere of The Magic Flute in 1791, she continued to perform this famous role on stage, relinquishing it in 1801 at age 43.

She married twice. Her first husband (married 21 July, 1788 in St. Stephen's Cathedral) was the musician Franz de Paula Hofer (1755–96). Hofer was employed as of 1789 as a violinist at the Imperial court. Her second husband (1797) was the singer Sebastian Mayer (1773–1835). Mayer was the first to perform the role of Pizarro in Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical music era and Romantic music eras in classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time....
's opera Fidelio
Fidelio

Fidelio is a German language opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly....
.

Josepha Mayer retired from singing in 1805, and died in Vienna December 29, 1819.

Assessment


Of her singing, the New Grove says, "According to contemporary reports, she commanded a very high tessitura
Tessitura

In music, the term tessitura generally describes the most musically acceptable and comfortable Range for a given singing or, less frequently, musical instrument; the range in which a given voice type presents its best-sounding texture or timbre....
 but had a rough edge to her voice and lacked stage presence." The former quality equipped her to take on the very difficult coloratura
Coloratura

Coloratura has several meanings. The word derives from the Italian colorare or colorazione .The term normally refers to a soprano who has the vocal ability to produce notes above C#6 and whose tessitura is A4-A5 or higher ....
 passages that Mozart wrote into the Queen of the Night's part.