Josepha Weber
(Maria) Josepha Weber (later Josepha Hofer, Josepha Mayer; 1758-1819) was a Viennese soprano of the classical era. She was a sister-in-law of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and the first to perform the role of The Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute.
She was born in Zell, Austria, the daughter of Fridolin Weber. As a member of the Weber family she was related to Aloysia Weber, her younger sister, who was an early love interest of Mozart and sang in his later operas; Constanze Mozart, her youngest sister, who married Mozart in 1782;[1] and a first cousin, the composer Carl Maria von Weber.
Of her singing, the New Grove says, "According to contemporary reports, she commanded a very high tessitura but had a rough edge to her voice and lacked stage presence." The former quality equipped her to take on the very difficult coloratura passages that Mozart wrote into the Queen of the Night's part. She sang the role on stage for ten years, giving it up only in 1801.
She married twice, in 1788 to the court musician Franz de Paula Hofer (1755–96) and later (1797) the singer Sebastian Mayer (1773–1835) who was the first to perform the role of Pizarro in Beethoven’s opera Fidelio.
Josepha Mayer died in Vienna December 29, 1819.
Notes
- ^ Online New Grove, article "Mozart"
Reference
- All information above is taken from the article "Weber", in the online edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.