Josef Mysliveček was a Czech composer of late baroque who became famous in Italy as “Il Boemo”.
Josef Mysliveček
Mysliveček was born in 1737 in Prague and as the son of a wealthy father, he could afford to pursue his dreams. Although having a miller education, he was allowed to study music in his free time and besides violin, her also studied composition. He wished to develop his talents in Italy and left for Venice in 1763.
Il Boemo
At first, Mysliveček earned his living in Italy as violin player and his first big breakthrough was his first cantata Il Parnaso confuso. The premiere of his opera Bellerofontés was witnessed by the king Ferdinand IV. Catarina Gabrielli was the female lead and the fact that Mysliveček wrote more opera parts for her was the origin of the legend of their romance. From 1765, Josef Mysliveček was known in Italy as Il Boemo (The Bohemian). Despite some popular belief, he was not called Il Divino Boemo. Besides operas, he also composed oratorios, overtures, symphonies, compositions for cembalo, concertos and chamber compositions.
He met W. A. Mozart in Bologna in 1770 and they remained friends until almost the end of Mysliveček’s life.
End of life
Mysliveček met W. A. Mozart several times more and the Austrian whose work was in part inspired by Mysliveček’s work even visited his friend in a clinic in Munich when Mysliveček’s face was disfigured. Although there is quite a known story about how he lost his nose in an accident, the true reason for this was the fact that Il Boemo suffered from syphilis. Leopold Mozart criticized Mysliveček’s lifestyle and stated it as the reason for his venereal disease. He forbade his son to see his friend ever again.
After the fail of his very expensive production of the opera Armida, he left to Rome where he produced two more operas. Josef Mysliveček died in 1781 and was buried at the San Lorenzo in Lucina church in Rome.
Josef Mysliveček in Popular Culture
At the end of the 19th century, Jakub Arbes wrote a romanetto inspired by Mysliveček’s life. He called the work Il Divino Boemo, thus starting the legend of Mysliveček being called “divino”.
In 2015, director Petr Václav made a documentary about his life, followed by the 2022 Czech-Italian coproduction movie Il Boemo.
Would you like to know about more Czech composers? Here is the list of 5 Most Famous Czech Composers.
Featured picture by Jan Vilímek – VILÍMEK, Jan a Karel RAIS. České album: sbírka podobizen předních spisovatelů a spisovatelek českých, učenců, mužů i žen práce, kteří život svůj zasvětili povznesení národa svého. V Praze: Jos. R. Vilímek, 189-, p. [37]. Available also from: https://ndk.cz/uuid/uuid:8bfb37f0-cb83-11e6-ac1c-001018b5eb5c, Volné dílo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5720207
