Mozart's Berlin journey

One of the longest adulthood journeys of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a visit, beginning in spring 1789, to a series of cities lying northward of his adopted home in Vienna: Prague, Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin. Departure The journey took place during a difficult period of Mozart’s career when he was no longer earning much money from concerts, and his income from the composition of operas had not made up the difference. He was borrowing money, for example from his friend Michael Puchberg, and the financial situation was very worrisome. Mozart’s passage to Berlin was free of charge: he accompanied his aristocratic patron and fellow Mason Prince Karl Lichnowsky, (a patron of both Mozart and Beethoven) who had his own reasons for visiting Berlin and had offered Mozart a ride. Mozart and Lichnowsky departed Vienna on the morning of 8 April 1789. The King was a great potential source of concert income and commissions for new works. Mozart also reported to Constanze that he had worked out an agreement with Domenico Guardasoni, the director of the Italian opera in Prague, for a new opera for a fee of 250 ducats (ca. 1,000 florins). Solomon’s hypothesis of infidelity The trip was the first