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
Christine Weidinger among others. In 1988 she performed the role of Eupaforice in Carl Heinrich Graun's "Montezuma" at the Spoleto Festival USA. After a 16-year absence, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera in 1992 to sing the title role in Rossini's "Semiramide". Some of the many other roles Weidinger has sung on stage are Arminda in "La finta giardiniera", the Countess in "Le comte Ory", Gilda in "Rigoletto", Konstanze in "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Leonora in "Il trovatore", the title role in Rossini's "Armida", Armida in Handel's "Rinaldo" (with Marilyn Horne) and Amenaide in "Tancredi". She also performed the demanding Donizetti