Josepha Duschek

Her father was a prosperous apothecary, Anton Adalbert Hambacher (also "Hampacher") and her mother was Maria Domenica Colomba, who came from Salzburg.

Built in the Baroque style, it was situated in the Old Town Square where the pharmaceutical business flourished until the 20th century.

It is not known whether the couple performed together as musicians, but they hosted frequent musical gatherings at which many famous people were present.

[1] Her career as a singer was long and successful; she gave concerts in many different cities, including Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Dresden, Weimar, Leipzig, Warsaw and Berlin.

Mozart accompanied her at a private concert before the Viennese court in 1786, shortly after the success of his opera The Marriage of Figaro.

At this time, he stayed with the Duscheks in their summer house, a villa called Bertramka, at Smíchov in Prague.

During the 1787 visit, Mozart wrote the concert aria "Bella mia fiamma, addio," K. 528 (it is dated 3 November 1787).

27–34) are set to an awesome tangle of chromatic sequences artfully calculated to test the singer's sense of intonation and powers of interpretation.

[4] In 1789 Duschek sang the work along with other arias[5] at concerts given by Mozart in Dresden and Leipzig, during his German tour of that year.

The Grove Dictionary assesses her singing thus: "She was appreciated for the sonority, range and flexibility of her voice, for her musicianship, and superb execution of both bravura arias and recitatives."