“Presently, everybody puts on fancy dress or costume and, what is extremely convenient, we are excused from having to raise one's hat to nod to usual greetings when such hat is covered by a carnival mask. You never call out anybody by his name, you rather say: Servitore Umilissimo, giora Mascara. Cospetto di Bacco. It's a heck of a row! ...
Take care and always love me.”
Wolfgang Mozart
At the very beginning of the year, lacking money, only Leopold and Wolfgang left to conquer Italy. At 14 years old, Wolfgang was not a little wonder any more and gradually established himself like a talented composer.
An article on Mozart published in the Gazette de Vérone translated into Italian his first name Gottlieb by Amadeus.
“You perhaps already heard somebody discussing over the Rome Miserere, so famous, and estimated at such a price that it is expressly forbidden under penalty of excommunication to Chapel musicians to take out its music score, copy it, or communicate it to anyone. However we already have it. Wolfgang already wrote it and...”
Leopold, April 14, 1770
“The philharmonic Academy has just received unanimously Wolfgang in his company, and delivered to him the philharmonic diploma of academician.”
Leopold October 20, 1770
During this Italy tour, Mozart heard in Cremone the Hasse's opera: La Clemenza di Tito. In Bologna, Padre Martini – who had taught Johann Christian Bach – was interested by Mozart to whom he gave lessons.
At Florence, Mozart was outstandingly talented there in compositions and fugues execution. He bound friendship with Nardini, a violonist of the same age. At Verona, the eminent key figures fought over him.
On December 16, 1770, was born Ludwig van Beethoven.
In Italy, the day after Christmas in 1770, Wolfgang presented his opera entitled Mitridate de di Ponto, based on a tragedy from Racine.
The Salzburg young person composed more than twenty pieces during this same year.
| K.32 | Small Burlesque Symphony in D Major |
| K.44 | Antiphon in C Major (Cibavit Eos) |
| K.74 | Symphony N° 10 in G Major |
| K.74b | Aria for Soprano in E Major |
| K.77 | Recitative and Aria for Soprano in E flat Major |
| K.78 | Aria for Soprano in E flat Major |
| K.79 | Recitative and Aria for Soprano in E flat Major |
| K.80 | String Quartet in G Major |
| K.81 | Symphony N° 44 in D Major |
| K.82 | Aria for Soprano in F Major |
| K.83 | Aria for Soprano in E flat Major |
| K.84 | Symphony N° 11 in D Major |
| K.86 | Antiphon in C Major |
| K.87 | Opera seria "Mitridate Re Di Ponto" |
| K.88 | Aria for Soprano in C Major |
| K.89 | Kyrie in G Major for 5 Sopranos |
| K.89a | Canon for 4 Winds and 5 Riddle Canons |
| K.94 | Minuet for piano in D Major |
| K.95 | Symphony in D Major N° 47 |
| K.97 | Symphony in D Major N° 47 |
| K.115 | Short Mass in C Major |
| K.122 | Minuet for orchestra in E flat Major |
| K.123 | Contredanse in B flat Major |
| K.85 | Miserere in A Minor (unfinished) |
| K.143 | Recitative and Aria for Soprano in G major |
Since its birth in Italian Tuscany, the opera, which combined music with theatrical drama, spread over the remainder of Italy, Germany, France, and England.
During the XVIIIth century, French people adorned it with a gallant touch (rococo) in which short chords and trills, favourable with dance, accompanied melodies; Italian people deserted the musical drama for castrati arias whereas German people privileged the sentimental expression of longer parts such as sonata and concerto.
From this point of view, the young Mozart – who forsook his virtuoso statute to affirm himself as a composer – studied various musical, literary, and theatrical forms.
Little by little, he combined them in a work where voices and instruments were harmonized with intrigue and characters by exploiting all their tonalities. Dramatic, serious, whimsical, philosophical, sacred, complex, vast, and articulated, his work arouses a constant and still growing interest.