Aloysia Weber

Maria Aloysia Antonia Weber Lange (c. 1760 – 8 June 1839) was a German soprano, remembered primarily for her association with the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

On 31 October 1780, she married Joseph Lange, an actor at the Theater am Kärntnertor who was also an amateur painter (he later produced a well-known portrait of Mozart).

This position lasted only eight months, as she soon became "persona non grata owing to disagreements over salary and role distribution as well as missed performances.

This is less implausible than it might seem, since according to Mahling, Mozart was himself a trained (former) soprano, instructed in childhood (1764–1765) by a celebrated castrato, Giovanni Manzuoli.

[8] To achieve this end, Mozart taught Aloysia to sing a number of arias that included bravura passages, taken from his earlier work in Italy.

By Mozart's own account, Aloysia was a very fine pupil, and at the end of the instruction period he wrote a kind of examination piece, the recitative and aria K. 294 "Alcandro, lo confesso/Non sò, d'onde viene".

The father Fridolin had died in 1779, and Aloysia's mother Cäcilia Weber was taking in boarders to make ends meet.

Apparently there were no long-term hard feelings, as Mozart wrote a fair amount of additional music for Aloysia to sing, listed below.

From the Mannheim visit: From the Vienna years: Joachim Daniel Preisler, a Danish actor and musician, was sent on tour by his employer, the Royal Theater in Copenhagen, to study opera production in other European countries.

but ... not by a long way as good as our Müller;[18] yet her high range and her delicacy, her execution, taste and theoretical knowledge cannot fail to be admired by any impartial critic.

[19]Preisler's testimony also indicates that Aloysia was not just a fine singer, but an outstanding general musician: The well-known Mozardt is her brother-in-law, and has taught her so well that she accompanies from a score and plays interludes like a Kapellmeister.