Editing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (section)

====1786–87: Return to opera====
[[File:Mozartův klavír 1.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Fortepiano]] played by Mozart in 1787, Czech Museum of Music, Prague<ref>{{cite news|title=Czech Museum of Music to display "Mozart" piano|url=https://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/czech-museum-of-music-to-display-mozart-piano|website=Radio Praha|access-date=14 December 2018|date=31 January 2007|archive-date=2 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202105327/https://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/czech-museum-of-music-to-display-mozart-piano|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
Despite the great success of ''[[Die Entführung aus dem Serail]]'', Mozart did little operatic writing for the next four years, producing only two unfinished works and the one-act ''[[Der Schauspieldirektor]]''. He focused instead on his career as a piano soloist and writer of concertos. Around the end of 1785, Mozart moved away from keyboard writing{{sfn|Solomon|1995|p={{Page needed|date=September 2010}}}} and began his famous operatic collaboration with the [[Libretto|librettist]] [[Lorenzo Da Ponte]]. The year 1786 saw the successful premiere of ''[[The Marriage of Figaro|Le nozze di Figaro]]'' in Vienna. Its [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Prague|reception in Prague]] later in the year was even warmer, and this led to a second collaboration with Da Ponte: the opera ''[[Don Giovanni]]'', which premiered in October 1787 to acclaim in Prague, but less success in Vienna during 1788.{{sfn|Freeman|2021|pp=131–168}} The two are among Mozart's most famous works and are mainstays of operatic repertoire today, though at their premieres their musical complexity caused difficulty both for listeners and for performers. These developments were not witnessed by Mozart's father, who had died on 28 May 1787.<ref>{{cite book|last=Palmer|first=Willard|author-link=Willard Palmer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bs0cSyGLaNMC&pg=PA4|title=W. A. Mozart: An Introduction to His Keyboard Works|page=4|publisher=Alfred Music Publishing|date= 2006|isbn=978-0-7390-3875-8}}</ref> His [[Symphony No. 38 (Mozart)| Symphony No. 38]] premiered in Prague that year.<ref>{{cite news| last=Service| first=Tom| author-link=Tom Service| date=October 1, 2013| title=Symphony guide: Mozart's 38'th – Prague|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]| url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2013/oct/01/symphony-guide-mozart-38-prague-tom-service}}</ref>

In December 1787, Mozart finally obtained a steady post under aristocratic patronage. Emperor Joseph II appointed him as his "chamber composer", a post that had fallen vacant the previous month on the death of [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck]]. It was a part-time appointment, paying just 800 florins per year, and required Mozart only to compose dances for the annual balls in the [[Hofburg Palace|Redoutensaal]] (see ''[[Mozart and dance]]''). This modest income became important to Mozart when hard times arrived. Court records show that Joseph aimed to keep the esteemed composer from leaving Vienna in pursuit of better prospects.{{sfn|Solomon|1995|pp=423–424}}{{efn|1=A more recent view{{sfn|Wolff|2012}} is that Mozart's position was a more substantial one than is traditionally maintained, and that some of Mozart's chamber music from this time was written as part of his imperial duties.}}

In 1787, the young [[Ludwig van Beethoven]] spent several weeks in Vienna, hoping to study with Mozart.{{sfn|Haberl|2006|pp=215–255}} No reliable records survive to indicate whether the [[Beethoven and Mozart|two composers]] ever met.