On the other hand, it seems that it was not considered a theft to "skim money" at the expense of the masters: Leopold says that this is to be considered profit and not theft. Then as today, if the law was very hard on the poor, it was not so hard on the rich and powerful. Thus a notary, taking advantage of the sums of money entrusted to him and no longer able to repay them, went bankrupt and disappeared from circulation. They, therefore, had to be content with hanging his portrait.
In the last letter sent to Hagenauer from Paris on 1 April 1764, Leopold Mozart refers to an infrequent episode: an eclipse of the sun. For days the Parisian glassmakers had collected all the glass fragments left over from the work to prepare for the event, and had colored them blue or black for sale to those who wanted to observe the eclipse without having any damage to their eyesight. Those who were not satisfied with observing the eclipse from the road could go to the Observatory built by Louis XIV in 1667 and entrusted to the Italian astronomer and mathematician Giovanni Cassini (later naturalized French, as had happened, again under Louis XIV with the Florentine musician Giovan Battista Lulli who became Jean-Baptiste Lully). Unfortunately for the Parisians who had bought the colored glass, a heavy rain fell that day and the vision of the eclipse faded.
In compensation, however, the anticipation of the event had unleashed the superstition of those (and there were many since the churches that morning were stormed) who believed that the eclipse would poison the air or even cause plagues. Having scraped together a lot of money from the performances of the boys, Leopold writes to Hagenauer (who, remember, was his lender / administrator / banker) that he wanted to deposit 200 Luigi d'oro, at the Parisian branch of the Tourton and Baur bank, waiting to have them transferred to Salzburg. He also looks forward to collecting the proceeds of the next concert, scheduled for 9 April, with which he hopes to replenish the reserves with at least another 50 or 60 Luigi d'oro, without excluding the hope of obtaining more.
But how did the organization of public concerts work at that time? For private individuals, kings and aristocrats, they presented themselves, obtained an invitation, the performance was carried out and then waited (even for some time) for a gift in money or precious objects (if all went well). Public concerts with payment of an entrance ticket were not yet widespread at the time when the Mozarts were in Paris. The main organization dedicated to the proposal of musical concerts was the "Concert spirituel" which, since 1725, had the royal permission to have music performed in competition with the Parisian theatrical institutions. In particular, the concerts were organized during the period of Lent, when any profane entertainment was forbidden, and the programs included choral and instrumental music with interventions by the main virtuosos. These concerts were mainly frequented by the middle class and the lower aristocracy (the important aristocrats, as we have seen, organized them at home).
For paid public concerts, the organization provided for the presale of tickets through friends and acquaintances introduced in the Parisian salons who could circulate the news of the concert and sell the tickets to interested parties. Even the shops of the music publishers could be part of the booking and ticket sales points (in Vienna in the following years, this was the case for Wolfgang and also later, for Beethoven and others who became entrepreneurs themselves). The friends, therefore, contacted potential interested parties eight days before the concert and sold them concert tickets which, in this specific case, cost 1/4 of Luigi d'oro. If the price was the same as the one charged for the previous concert, which had collected 112 Luigi d'oro, then we can estimate the presence of 448 people at the Parisian exhibition on 10 March 1764!
A little selling trick, Leopold himself reveals, consisted in giving most of the tickets, in packets of 12 or 24, to ladies who, as such, would hardly have received any refusal to purchase from the courteous men who may have offered them. To prevent fake tickets from being printed Leopold Mozart had his seal put on the cards and the content was very concise: At the Teatro del Signor Felix, rue and Porte Saint Honoré, this Monday 9 April at 6 pm. This Mr. Felix's theater was actually a small private theater built inside his palace, where friends and noble guests delighted in acting in first person plays.
The two concerts given by the Mozarts were able to be organized thanks to the availability of the Theater, obtained thanks to the support of Madame Clermont, but above all thanks to a special authorization obtained from Mr. de Sartine, Lieutenant General of Police, on multiple interventions by Mozart supporters: the Duke of Chartres, the Duke of Duras, the Count of Tessé and many other ladies. Why was authorization needed to organize concerts? The reason depends on the fact that the King had granted some Parisian institutions "privileges" which provided for the exclusivity in the organization of certain shows: L'Opera (L'Académie Royale de Musique) had the exclusive right to organize theatrical performances, the Concerts spirituels enjoyed the privilege of organizing concerts, the Comédie francaise and the Comédie italienne were the only ones authorized to organize theatrical performances. What was the picturesque world of theater like in Paris?
The theatrical world in Paris at the time of the Mozarts
First of all it should be remembered that the profession of theatrics and the people who practiced it were at the time (and for centuries) considered immoral by the Church, so much so that the actors and dancers were subject to excommunication (for the musicians the speech was different because their art did not include excommunications and accusations of corruption of conscience).
If a noble had given himself up to the theatrical profession he would have lost the right to his title, while an aristocrat who had wanted to sing or play in the Opera team would not have suffered negative consequences.
While in Italy the situation of the actors was better, thanks to the greater tolerance that was generally practiced towards all forms of conduct at the limits of morality. In France the social condemnation was very much alive to the point that the deceased actors and dancers were denied the funeral ceremony and burial in consecrated ground.
We were buried at night and almost in secret, as was done for the most heinous criminals, and as happened for the poor Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name of Molière, great actor / author.
His enormous popularity, the applause and support of the Sun King, Louis XIV, for whom he wrote and interpreted numerous plays at Versailles and in Parisian theaters, was worthless: the pressure of the Court only obtained that he was not buried in a mass grave . Not even his death on the stage, during the recitation of the "Imaginary Sick", softened the religious but the same fate was also destined for many other actors among the most admired and even idolized, such as the actress Adrienne Lecouvreur (celebrated by the melodrama namesake of Francesco Cilea of 1902) lover of Maurice of Saxony and many others, who were buried on the banks of the Seine only thanks to the interest of the Prefect of Paris.
The excommunication prevented the actors from receiving the sacraments and therefore also getting married was a problem. Since religious marriage was the only one officially recognized, anyone who had more common law relationships, living together as married couples, could have incurred the rigors of the law that punished public concubines.
Finally, the children of these couples were forcibly "de facto" and considered illegitimate, a condition that deprived them of many civil rights and exposed them to public mockery.