Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was a composer born in Salzburg. His father Leopold trained him; by five he played instruments and had begun to compose, and the family toured Europe's courts with him as a prodigy.

Back in Salzburg he served Prince-Archbishop Colloredo, but resigned in 1777 and travelled seeking a post without success. In 1781 Colloredo summoned him to Vienna and dismissed him after a quarrel; he stayed in Vienna for the rest of his life. Die Entführung aus dem Serail in 1782 made his name, and he became a friend of Haydn.

With Da Ponte he wrote Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni (1787); that December Joseph II appointed him chamber composer. His last year brought Die Zauberflöte. He fell ill on 20 November 1791 and died at 35, leaving the Requiem largely unfinished, and was buried in a common grave.