Mythos Mozart: Multimedia Experience

What is MYTHOS MOZART?

In the heart of Vienna, at the very place where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed some of his most important works such as 'Die Zauberflöte' (The Magic Flute) and the 'Requiem' (Requiem) and where he died in 1791, a unique multimedia Mozart project is waiting to be discovered: MYTHOS MOZART.

We invite you to immerse yourself in Mozart’s world using all your senses and learn about his music, the era he lived in and many as yet unknown stories from his life in five different scenes and experience them in an immersive and interactive way!

MYTHOS MOZART covers 1,500 sqm across the entire basement of the STEFFL Department Store. The department store sees itself not only as a premium store for fashion, but also as a place that combines different worlds of experience from art and culture, social initiatives and various services together in one building. With MYTHOS MOZART, STEFFL is offering its existing customers and new visitors a visually modern approach to Mozart - a new world of experience in a very special place.

The location
Mozart spent the last year of his life in the 'Kleines Kayserhaus' at Rauhensteingasse 8 (now the back of STEFFL). Pietro di Galvagni - a successful Italian merchant, patron, art collector and Viennese resident by choice from 1819 - had the house replaced by a new building in 1848 and erected a bronze bust in Mozart’s memory, which can be seen today in the entrance area of MYTHOS MOZART.
In 1896, Otto Wagner built an elegant 'Metropolitan Clothing Palace' on Kärntner Straße for the Neumann family. Badly damaged in the war, it was rebuilt by the architect Carl Appel as the Neumann department store. After an eventful history, it’s now known as the STEFFL department store.

The spaces

In just under 60 minutes, visitors are immersed in Mozart’s world in five spaces:

1. REQUIEM (REQUIEM) - MOZART’S DEATH
Experience the place where Mozart was immortalized
Mozart spent the final year of his life here with his wife Constanze, composing masterpieces such as DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE (THE MAGIC FLUTE) and REQUIEM (REQUIEM). He was healthy up until shortly before he died. His son, Carl Thomas, was seven years old when Mozart died surrounded by his family, little Franz Xaver was only four months. His funeral mass was read in St. Stephen’s Cathedral - shadow projections and 1,500 candles allow us to feel the atmosphere of the solemn occasion.

2. VIENNA 1791 - MOZART’S CITY
Stroll through Mozart’s city of Vienna in 1791
The heart of a great European power once beat here. As an economic centre and lively metropolis with a magnificent imperial court and many aristocratic palaces, Vienna was a magical attraction for artists and musicians - and for showmen such as the balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard Mozart was very disappointed not to have seen his sensational 'journey up into the air' with his own eyes on July 6, 1791. Climb aboard, we’ll fly off together!

3. WORLD MUSIC - MOZART’S EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK (A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC) Experience Mozart as world music.
Mozart spent an incredible ten years travelling. He was convinced that education and global openness were impossible without travel - certainly he would have liked to see more of the world. He found inspiration everywhere, even composed music for instruments that were exotic at the time, and would have enjoyed making music with artists from all over the world. We’ll play his piece, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), together with you!

4. GENIUS - MOZART THE COMPOSER
Compose the overture together with Mozart
For Mozart, everything, every sensory experience, every encounter, became music. This sometimes made people who met him genuinely angry - he looked through them to view them as an opera figure. Without thinking about it, he created music while talking to anything or anyone nearby.

5. DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE (THE MAGIC FLUTE) - MOZART FOREVER
Mozart forever - that’s what the future sounds like anyway.
Mozart was already a star throughout Europe in his day - today his music has conquered the world. We get to experience how artificial intelligence creates never-before-seen visual worlds from millions of data, sound and video recordings, images and texts, book titles, covers and from many original documents such as manus and letters. Mozart, the innovator, would have appreciated how we’re looking into the future with him and his music!