Dear WoO,
Yes, yes ! - that's exactly right and you introduce this 'bombshell' at exactly the right time. Not only does Joseph Martin Kraus write here about Mozart composing 'Figaro' half a year before the official version of events but he does so (in this letter to his sister) from Paris - a Kraus letter which testifies either to Kraus having extra-sensory perception, ESP, or to him having the most intimate knowledge of what da Ponte and Mozart were supposedly doing.
Furthermore, at some point this 5 act play underwent its translation in to a 4 act opera and Kraus specifically talks of Mozart composing the music, but not of da Ponte making the libretto. Now, it follows that this remarkable Kraus letter (even taken at face value) has the potential to turn upside down almost everything we think we know about the true genesis of 'Mozart's' Le Nozze di Figaro.
Setting aside more detailed argument for later, let it be conceded that in order for Mozart (or anyone else) to be composing the opera in the autumn of 1785 permission must already have existed from the censorship authorities in Vienna to the text on which 'Mozart' was supposedly working. But if that permission had already been obtained in the autumn of 1785 it follows that da Ponte (if we try to rescue convention) must necessarily have submitted his libretto well before the autumn of that same year. We are therefore forced to consider that this 'Mozart/da Ponte' collaboration began as early as the summer of 1785 (if not earlier).
Let is be asked too how Kraus, writing from Paris could have known what Mozart was doing in Vienna on such a hugely controversial piece if, in fact, Mozart and da Ponte were composing secretly (without publicity) and unknown to the population of Vienna.
The very first thing we must accept here is that a relationship existed between Kraus and Mozart which 'official' scholarship has been so reluctant to ever admit - one in which Kraus and Mozart were in intimate contact and communication with one another - a relationship which has time and time again been argued for but never conceded by convention.
We open here a can of worms. For, here is Joseph Martin Kraus, 'the Swedish Mozart' writing from Paris, the city of Beaumarchais and of the Comedie Francaise - the city of the Revolution to come of 1789, and the city where, of course, the history of 'Le Nozze di Figaro' really began.
I will post further on this soon.
R
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