Mozarthaus Vienna – Multimedia Exhibition

Vienna, Domgasse 5: since 27 January 2006 (Mozart’s 250th birthday), this fully refurbished house containing Mozart’s former apartment, the only one of his Viennese residences still in existence today, has paid homage to the life and work of the musical genius. The exhibition is on three floors and covers an area of approximately 1,000m². The audio-visual installations in the Mozarthaus are inspired by media techniques and “worlds of wonder” of Mozart’s time. At that time, decades before the invention of photography and film, optical experiments and illusions, automatons and mechanical tricks were becoming fashionable and made people gasp in astonishment. A video and sound installation in the roofed courtyard shows a Montgolfier balloon on multiple monitors rising up with the lift. The journey continues on the top floor, with a flight over historic Vienna and the most important places associated with Mozart’s “golden years” in the imperial capital. A mini “perspective theatre” and a large panorama projection across the “Graben Nymphs” present the gallant, dashing side of the 18th century as an erotic game of discovery. An installation on the theme of “Figaro” combines the principle of old puzzle dice games with modern aesthetics and video technology. The grand finale is the multimedia homage to Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute”; a stage set made of scenery, projections and lighting effects showing a short version of “The Magic Flute” as virtual “mirror opera” from 1791 to the present day. Film footage of legendary productions is projected into the partly real, partly virtual stage landscape. Papageno moves as a projection through space and time and presents the main arias from the opera.