“The Other Mozart” is a one-woman one-act play that tells the story of Maria

Anna “Nannerl” Mozart, the older sister of Wolfgang Mozart who, despite being equally

if not more talented than her brother in musical performance and composition, was

largely forgotten by history due to the fact that she was forced to stop playing publicly

at the age of 18 as the harpsichord and fortepiano were seen as “unladylike” at the

time.

Frankly, I think this was one of my favorite events at Oswego that I’ve seen this

semester. It’s not surprising that I love theatre, so I was extremely excited when I found

out that one of Artswego’s events included a play. Before watching the performance, I

had never heard of Nannerl Mozart or- frankly- that Wolfgang Mozart had had a sister

who performed with him in the first place. I admit, I didn’t think the topic would be all

that interesting as a performative piece- after all, women being forgotten by history is a,

unfortunately, very common topic, so I wasn’t expecting to be moved or really all that

compelled by Nannerl’s story.

I was extremely wrong. From the second the play started, I was immediately

invested and on the edge of my seat. The play harnessed several very interesting

techniques to highlight the single actress’ performance, such as a vocal effect with the

mic to make her voice echo and sound more powerful, or constant classical music

playing in the background of her dialogue to emphasize how important music and

musical composition was for Nannerl. One of my favorite moments was towards the

end of the play, where Nannerl is reading letters from many different people and
realizing how much she could’ve had in her life if she was just allowed to pursue her

passion, and the music suddenly crescendoed so much that it completely drowned out

Nannerl’s words; at first, I thought this was a mistake and that the music was too loud

on accident, but as the actress acted out Nannerl’s horror and despair at revealing in

what she had lost, I quickly realized that the swing of music was a major metaphor at

how Nannerl’s story had literally been drowned out to make room for her brother. I

thought that was a brilliant touch, and I really loved the choice to have that in the show

as it added so much more emotion and dynamic to Nannerl.

I really thought this piece was so entertaining and incredible to watch. Even

though I knew what was coming from Nannerl’s story, seeing her act out her childhood

days and talk about how much she loved music and how she wanted to do nothing

else, to her being an adult and being told she could no longer do the only thing she

loved to do, meanwhile her younger brother got to pursue it instead- I admit, I was

really invested. It was a very sad story to be told, but an important one nonetheless;

and I’m glad that, after years of being forgotten to history, Nannerl is finally being

talked about once more and remembered for her skills as a musician, not just as

“Mozart’s sister.”