Franz Mesmer summers he lived on a splendid estate and became a patron of the arts. In 1768, when court intrigue prevented the performance of "La finta semplice" (K. 51), for which the twelve-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had composed 500 pages of music, Mesmer is said to have arranged a performance in his garden of Mozart's "Bastien und Bastienne" (K. 50), a one-act opera, though Mozart's biographer Nissen found no proof that this performance actually took place. Mozart later immortalized his former patron by including a comedic reference to Mesmer in his opera "Così fan tutte". In 1774, Mesmer produced an "artificial
The New Opera Theatre with I Cantori di New York, "Dido and Æneas", with Thaïs St Julien as Dido and Susannah Waters as Belinda, with Bart Folse conducting. The production was first seen at New York City's Symphony Space, then in New Orleans. In 1989, The NOT presented the New Orleans premiere of "Pelléas et Mélisande" (with Tracey Mitchell as Mélisande), which was followed by "Bastien und Bastienne", and the world-premiere of Dr LaBruyère's "Everyman", after the mediaeval Morality Play. The New Opera Theatre's final presentation was of a Benefit Concert, in the fall of 1989, featuring Natalia Rom. Folse and Morgan went on