Gutman’s (Richard Wagner) ambitious biography traces Mozart’s (1756-1791) career against the background of the courts in which he workedAthe circle of Archbishop Colloredo in provincial Salzburg, the aristocratic households of Europe and England and the salons of Joseph II’s culturally diverse Vienna. Gutman shows how Mozart grew from a pampered child prodigy, nearly helpless in practical matters, to a mature, self-sufficient man. Interspersed are discussions of the political and cultural trends of Mozart’s day, including the complex dynastic alignments at the end of the Seven Years War, the Enlightenment, the Sturm und Drang movement and the prevailing musical styles. Through these discourses, Gutman shows how aspects of intellectual trends appeared in Mozart’s music: for example, the Age of Reason in The Magic Flute, Sturm und Drang in some of his symphonies. However, these sections don’t always meld smoothly with the biographical narrative. Gutman’s analysis of Mozart’s personality and his relationship with his father, Leopold, while not groundbreaking, is more successful. Gutman describes Leopold as an "intellectual, ambitious, suave, and frequently cunning" man determined to dominate his son, and depicts how the young Mozart finally freed himself from his controlling parent and embarked on a promising career in Vienna. Gutman counters persistent legends portraying the end of Mozart’s short life as a time of poverty and despair and demonstrates that he was then, as always, an exuberant, optimistic man.