Birth of the poet from the spirit of music

For the failed capellmeister music remains the most important art form.

„I`m feeling that i am a good componist – i put my/one matter on the composing“

                                                                                                  (diary entry 25.07.1812)

His writings with which the author achieves great literary awareness pretty fast are created quite incidentally. He writes them in his so-called Poetenstübchen („poet’s parlor“) in this house – mostly quite late at night after a sociable round (e.g. in the „Theaterrose“ on the other side of the street) and in animated condition. Hoffmann´s success as a writer begins with music reviews and musical narratives that were published in the „Allgemeinen musikalischen Zeitung“ (General musical newspaper) in Leipzig. They give cause for new hope:

„My literary career seems to begin.“ (diary entry on January 27^th, 1809)

In addition to Ritter Gluck, the narration Don Juan dates back to this time. Their setting is the stage of Bamberg in which the career of the conductor led to a premature end.

Mozart´s Don Giovanni as source of poetic inspiration:

Kunz reports about his friend Hoffmann when they see a performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Bamberg together:

„The overture began; my friend next to me tried to make his feelings really clear … by the way he looked, with his eyes filled with tears – and partly by single words … This evening will be unforgettable …; because I have never seen so clearly with which sacred seriousness he devoted himself to the art of music and how art remained and lived inside him like an inner gospel which spoke to him and had a magnetic effect.“

In the tale Don Juan a „traveling enthusiast“ also experiences a performance of this opera. The fictitious lover of music is already completely enraptured when he listens to the overture:

“… terrible forebodings gripped my mind: the cheering fanfare in the seventh time of the allegro sounded like an exultant heinous deed; And from the pitch black of the night I saw the glowing claws of fiery demons reaching out…“ 

After midnight he goes from his neighboring hotel room to the „Fremdenloge Nro. 23“  (a theatre box for foreigners) where the aria from Mozart`s Donna Anna resounds.

The following day, the lover of Mozart finds out that the opera singer died at that time the previous night.

The theatre box where strange things happened can still be visited today.