Gottfried van Swieten and income following the earlier completion of their Grand Tour of Europe. According to Mozart's father Leopold, Van Swieten was involved in the early planning of Wolfgang's ill-fated opera "La Finta Semplice" (the opera was later blocked by intrigues, and could be performed only in Salzburg). In 1781, shortly after Mozart had moved to Vienna, van Swieten met him again: at the salon of Countess Thun, Mozart played extracts from his recent opera Idomeneo, with van Swieten and other important officials in the audience; this event helped instigate Mozart's commission for the opera "The Abduction from the Seraglio", his first
Donald Shanks (bass-baritone) "Norma" with Dame Joan Sutherland, "La bohème" with Luciano Pavarotti, and Banquo in "Macbeth" with Sherrill Milnes. Other roles he became associated with were Zaccharia in "Nabucco", Rocco in "Fidelio", Osmin in "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Boris in "Boris Godunov", Timur in "Turandot", Ramphis in "Aida", Pistol in "Falstaff", Kekal in "The Bartered Bride", Baron Ochs in "Der Rosenkavalier", Nourabad in "The Pearl Fishers", the Commendatore in "Don Giovanni", and a major role in Leoš Janáček's "The Cunning Little Vixen". He created the role of The Maestro in Alan John's 1995 opera "The Eighth Wonder" at the Sydney Opera