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Mozart's opera Don Giovanni deals with the mythologically charged subject of the womaniser and libertine Don Juan. The focus is on an unscrupulous nobleman who lives excessively, seduces women and even murders – until he is finally brought to account by a higher power. The story is deeply rooted in moral issues and raises questions of guilt, abuse of power and punishment.

In cooperation with the International Mozarteum Foundation, the Institute for the History of Musical Reception and Interpretation (IMRI) at the Mozarteum University Salzburg is organising a symposium on ‘Mozart Interpretations in Sound Recordings up to 1950’ in the Mozart Sound and Film Collection from 19 to 21 November 2025. We ask for proposals for papers relevant to the topic.

This year's Bella Musica tour promises an extraordinary highlight: for the first time, the original violin by W. A. Mozart will be presented in the city of Lucca on 28 August 2024 as part of the Bella Musica tour. This unique opportunity is made possible by a new collaboration with the Mozarteum Foundation.

As a play, La Folle journée by the scandalous author Pierre Auguste Caron de Beaumarchais was banned in Vienna. However, Mozart and Da Ponte were able to suggest to Emperor Joseph II that the genre of opera would defuse the revolutionarily objectionable text and were thus commissioned to compose and write the libretto. The question of whether they did not in fact intensify the play in other ways is one that is posed anew in every production. With Le nozze di Figaro, Gernot Sahler and Alexander von Pfeil's opera class continued their Da Ponte cycle, which began with Così fan tutte in May 2023.