Customer Reviews
On the fringes of European History - By: ladyday, 12 Oct 2008 
I was saturated with Mozart last year (2007) but little or no mention was ever made of the womenin his life, only emphasis on his father, so I looked forward to this book fillingin the blanks. Wolfgang A Mozart lived & died but these women - his sister & wife (earlier mention of his mother) lived on, preserving his legacyin a time when women were really so sidelined musically. His sister easyily his contemporary musician, condemened to unhappy marriage & no recognition of her own skills was able to contribute much having preserved many of her letters to & from W A Mozart. His wife clever enough to recruit her second husband as an ally to researching & compiling his biography. I enjoyed this & took my time reading it. Recommended reading.
Scholarly yet approachable - By: Lancashire Lass, 14 Mar 2007 Dr Glover's `Mozart's Women' is a beautifully crafted book; her writing is scholarly yet approachable - a rare combination.
She takes you by the hand & leads you through the life of one of music's greatest classical composers, W. A. Mozart. You are immersedin his life with such ease that you begin to feel that perhaps Glover is also one of Mozart's women who has been `time-warped' into your lounge & is recounting tales of her late friend's life & times.
The book is written with clarity & passion, but devoid of sentimentality & sensationalism. Wolfgang emerges,in all but his prodigious musical talents, as a quite normal yet fun-loving kind of chap; this is far-removed from the hysterical, cackling buffoon of the film `Amadeus'. Constanza shines through as Wolfgang's warm-hearted, loving, ever-supportive wife & champion. Clearly, she was not an air-headed dim-wit of a party girl as she is so often portrayed. Other Mozart & von Weber family members & friends are described, as are their interactions & effects on Wolfgang's life & works.
In summary, the book leaves you wanting to experience each & every Mozart opera & with a greater respect for Mozart the man. I sailed through the book carried along by the pace of this most marvellous of biographies. An absolutely compelling read & it will be with some regret that you finally reach the last page.
Dr Glover is to be congratulated on this accessible yet informative book.
Buy it & read it; you are unlikely to be disappointed.
A fantastic book for anyone that loves music. - By: Susie W, 06 Aug 2006 What a wonderful experience reading this book! I had expected a high quality biography from Dr Glover, but this was outstanding. She focused on the music & genius of Mozart without lowering the tone by resorting to 'gossip' & 'conspiracy theories' about his death. It was so interesting to read about how certain women were 'muses' to his musical creativity.
I have bought copies of this book for other musicians & cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone that loves opera.
A valuable contribution to understanding Mozart - By: Dr. Allen Brown, 11 Apr 2006 
Generally I am impressed with this book, Dr Glover has a well crafted writing style & the narrative flows evenly throughout the whole book. The brief history of Mozart as seenin the context of the womenin his life is a fascinating perspective to adopt & Dr Glover brings it off rather well. Mozart's adult life was closely enmeshed with the Weber family & their four talented daughters (he married one of them) - this theme runs throughout the whole text & is well developed. As expected a considerable amount of the book is given over to the operas owing to a high level of distinctive female presence on stage. Again very well presented - observing the difficulties & the triumphs of each opera as experienced by members of the female cast. Just a couple of reservations, the structure of the book - the chapters are very long & I feel a few subtitles would not have been out of place. In the brief history of Mozart's lifein Chapter 1 it would have been useful to have reference to concurrent compositions accompanying events - positioning Mozart's musicin a sort of chronology. Anyone who is a Mozart enthusiast will find this book an enjoyable & entertaining read.
Glover's time machine - By: Stephen A. Haines, 26 Nov 2005 While you'rein Amazon, try searching "Mozart"in the "Books" category [don't even attempt itin "Classical Music"!]. Over three thousand offerings will be displayed. Refining that search to "Constanze Mozart" returns barely two dozen. While that might be expected, the fact that "Mozart's Women" appearsin none of the lists seems a distortion.
Glover has successfully offered something innovativein Mozartiana - his life & that of the womenin it. With so many seeing Mozart's wife Constanze through the film "Amadeus", Glover's view may be something of a shock. Her depiction of Constanze & the other Weber daughters, along with Mozart's sister Nannerl, is more than a rehabilitation. It is almost an upheaval of the traditional view of the lives of 18th Century composers & performers. Moreover, the tale is done with such verve & enthusiasm that you are caught from the first lines & held captive until the story's complete.
Does anyone who's read this far need an introduction to music's most eminent figure? The boyish, extroverted, discouraged & often distraught man who produced so much, yet died before his peak productive years? Glover manages to re-acquaint us to the child who found strength & inspiration through the presence of his sister. Their times apart were difficult for both, leading them to exchange a constant stream of lettersin their younger years. They played together, with more than just music, since Wolfgang would bring home games when Leopold dragged him to some distant city. Only his relocation to Vienna broke the link, further sundered by his marriage to Constanze. Glover traces Nannerl's lifein parallel to Wolfgang's. That existence fits more appropriately the image we have of the time - marriage to an unpleasant man & enforced exile away from music centres.
Mozart's eye for the ladies rarely let up until his marriage. Constanze's sisters attracted his gazein his younger years & his earin the later ones. Glover's division of this book into three "family" segments seems simplistic at first glance. Her logic is demonstrated as she follows the sibling, then marital relationships. It is the third segment, "Mozart's Women", that allows the author to achieve her fullest expression, however. It's no longer games nor domestic bliss, but Mozart's compositions & how he worked with singers & musicians. In his operas, he targetted particular performers - disappointed when certain vocalists were unavailable, appalled when substitutions were forced by circumstances.
As Glover recounts the development of librettos & cast assemblages, she draws you into each story with commanding passion for her topic. It is her depictions of the performances that jar the modern reader. She is able to evoke the quality of the singers' efforts as if she had personally witnessed them. You "hear" Calavieri's poignant ability, Alyosia Weber's soaring escalations to the highest pitches, & listen to the ways Mozart found to utilise the voices of young children. His tenors were no less carefully selected, with Wolfgang rewriting scores to accommodate the loss of powerin an older performer. The entire segment reads as if Glover was sittingin the second row of the music halls furiously scribbling notes as the music washes over her. Her recounting of what she "heard" should melt the resistance of the most hardened opera avoider. It did me. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
