The Genius of Mozart

The Genius of Mozart is a BBC documentary series hosted by Charles Hazlewood, presenting Mozart's extraordinary life from his childhood as a travelling musical prodigy to his tragic death at the tender age of 35. The story begins with the composer's father Leopold with whom Mozart conducted a passionate and tortured correspondence. It is Leopold who knows Mozart's secrets. And there is another voice: that of the music itself. In the first episode of the series "Miracle of Nature", Charles Hazlewood challenges the accepted belief that Mozart was born a genius, and thus became almost an immortal being. The first great phase of Mozart's brief life was that of the travelling child prodigy - gifted as a performer and writer of music - who grew into the genius who, working within the restrictions of his time, began to rewrite the musical rules. The second episode "A Passion for the Stage" examines three of Mozart's greatest operas, and shows how The Magic Flute. Idomeneo, and The Marriage of Figaro revolutionised the musical theater. And in the third and final episode "The First Romantic", Charles Hazlewood examines how, towards the end of his life, Mozart mastered the language of instrumental and orchestral writing - and how both love and loss provoked in him an extraordinary burst of creativity.