Mystery of Mozart's Skull!

[robert newman]

Dear Cetto von Cronstorff,

You may hold an opinion of me and can even offer a diagnosis of my physical/mental state but let such things be supported by responding if you can to the substance of my posts - particularly, Cetto von Cronstorff, to the recent one I wrote specially for you in reply to your whole series of own errors and misunderstandings. To date this board has seen no response from you to the contents of my letter to you other than unsolicited insults and an unsolicited diagnosis by you of my (supposed) physical and mental state. Such things may be evidence of your obsession with myself but are hardly appropriate here.

Be a good boy - do your homework, correct what is wrong (if you can) and accept the corrections you have already received. In this way you earn credit for yourself and this forum and will help all of us in our understanding of these issues. To date you've done none of these things and have simply been corrected - a fact you don't like and have written so angrily you've collected nothing but warnings and censures from this forum.

Sincerely and with best wishes

Robert Newman

[robert newman]

Amongst many compositions now lost that are known to have been composed by Joseph Martin Kraus are a number of stage works -

'Azira' (c.1778 ?) - only fragment extant
'Oedip' (c.1785)- Lyric Tragedy - not completed
'Zelia' (c.1786)- (Paris ?)

As early as 1778 (according to 'Groves') Kraus had described himself as a 'devotee of Gluck and Gretry' (i.e. of the same operatic lineage as Haydn and Mozart. Again, Kraus's C Minor symphony (described in 1783 by Haydn as one of the greatest examples of its age) makes musical reference in its opening bars to Gluck's 'Iphigene'.

(There are also many lost Kraus symphonies and he wrote songs with texts in no less than 7 different languages). In my opinion we must assume Kraus and Mozart had an artistic relationship - one that may even have begun years before Kraus ever visited Vienna (1783) during his European tour though conclusive proof of such still lacks documentary evidence.