WI: Mozart moves to Paris in 1778

[SouthernWind]

According to a very popular and widespread legend about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's youth, when he was eleven years old and performing one of his concerts at the court of Empress Maria Theresa, he paid homage to a little lady of the royal retinue, even asking her to marry him. That young lady would become the Queen of France Marie Antoinette.

What many people do not know is that Mozart had the opportunity, during his life, to find himself working for Marie Antoinette herself. In 1778, in fact (the year in which Marie Antoinette finally became pregnant with Louis XVI's daughter, Marie Therese Charlotte) Mozart went to Paris with his mother and, on that occasion, he was even offered the position of organist at the Palace of Versailles. However, Mozart was not willing to accept it.

Let's assume instead that Mozart decides to accept the assignment, and thus moves permanently to Versailles, quickly advancing his career. If he is able to maintain employment at Versailles long enough to become familiar with both the French language and customs, it is not impossible to speculate that Mozart might make a career in France rather than Austria, and write plays and musical works in French. If then Marie Antoinette (because she remembers their first meeting, or out of simple sympathy for the fact that they are both Austrians) decides to take him under her protective wing, Mozart could know a much more fruitful and satisfying career than the one he had in Austria in OTL. It would be interesting if Mozart could become the official music teacher for the children of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI, as well as making a more faithful transposition of The Marriage of Figaro by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.

If Mozart then manages to reap enough personal success, he could see with his own eyes the beginning of the French Revolution. And at this point the question is, will the greatest musician in the history of Western music also be executed by guillotine?​

 

[tallthinkev]

He legs it the next year and ends up in London.

 

[Slime_blob]

hmm with that fame he wouldve gone to Austria if the situation gets worst or UK

 

[Kellan Sullivan]

According to a very popular and widespread legend about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's youth, when he was eleven years old and performing one of his concerts at the court of Empress Maria Theresa, he paid homage to a little lady of the royal retinue, even asking her to marry him. That young lady would become the Queen of France Marie Antoinette.​

The legend is actually that Mozart was running, slipped on the floors at Schonbrünn and Antoinette helped him up. To which he kissed her cheek and said "you're very kind. One day I shall marry you" (and it was on their first performance in Vienna in 1762, not the one in 1767).

What many people do not know is that Mozart had the opportunity, during his life, to find himself working for Marie Antoinette herself. In 1778, in fact (the year in which Marie Antoinette finally became pregnant with Louis XVI's daughter, Marie Therese Charlotte) Mozart went to Paris with his mother and, on that occasion, he was even offered the position of organist at the Palace of Versailles. However, Mozart was not willing to accept it.

Let's assume instead that Mozart decides to accept the assignment, and thus moves permanently to Versailles, quickly advancing his career. If he is able to maintain employment at Versailles long enough to become familiar with both the French language and customs, it is not impossible to speculate that Mozart might make a career in France rather than Austria, and write plays and musical works in French. If then Marie Antoinette (because she remembers their first meeting, or out of simple sympathy for the fact that they are both Austrians) decides to take him under her protective wing, Mozart could know a much more fruitful and satisfying career than the one he had in Austria in OTL. It would be interesting if Mozart could become the official music teacher for the children of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI, as well as making a more faithful transposition of The Marriage of Figaro by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.

If Mozart then manages to reap enough personal success, he could see with his own eyes the beginning of the French Revolution. And at this point the question is, will the greatest musician in the history of Western music also be executed by guillotine?​

Anti-Austrian sentiment in Paris was high at the time of Mozart's visit. It had very little to do with Antoinette whether she liked him or not. She'd gotten Gluck a place in Paris, and while his Iphigenie en Tauride was a success, Paris was not as welcoming towards him.
Piccinni remained popular.

Likely, the job as organist wouldn't have been "good enough" for Mozart. Especially if there was a situation like with JC Bach who occupied the post of organist at Milan Cathedral when he skipped out to London. Why'd Bach skip out? Because three quarters of his salary was reserved to the SENIOR organist (this was standard practice at the time). If Mozart has to put up with Claude Balbastre (organist of the Chapelle Royal from 1760s) doing the same, Mozart's gonna fall into his usual tract of muttering about everyone else being "preferred" and stopping him getting ahead (like he did in Salzburg and Vienna).

The other thing is that Mozart has some serious competition in Paris from people like Gossec, Pleyel, Rigel, not to mention the native French composers. Mozart's biggest rival in Paris, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Joseph de Boulogne. And Mozart made several racist remarks about Saint-Georges (who was a friend of Antoinette, and she couldn't even get Saint-Georges, a native French aristocrat's illegitimate son, to be appointed at the Paris Opéra - several of the singers threatened to resign if Saint-Georges was appointed). Mozart went on to make the villain in his opera, the Magic Flute, a moor, and many saw this as a reference to Saint-Georges.

Mozart in Paris is as nice an idea as Mozart in Munich (Maximilian III refused an appointment on grounds of the state of Bavarian finances) or Mozart getting appointed to the Stephansdon earlier than he did (he died before he could take up the post). But the end result is the same. Mozart had a difficult personality (his father, sister and brother-in-law (Aloysia Weber's husband) all attested to it). Mozart being in Paris doesn't mean that that that personality doesn't still get him into trouble. The thing is that Mozart had been fêted so much in his childhood that he essentially turned into a spoiled brat. He had a belief in his own genius (and really, if you compare his music to Vanhal, Pichl, Haydn, Pleyel, Dittersdorf, Arriaga, Solère, Saint-Georges and Rigel, Mozart's isn't all that different) and he was antagonistic towards anyone who tried to tell him different. Leopold despaired of his son's personality (and practically begged him to apologize to the Salzburg archbishop and get his job back). Mozart refused.