ABSTRACT
In discussing Mozart's vocal music, Franz Niemetschek was among the first to suggest that "Darum mußte man immer die Sanger kennen, fur die er schrieb, wenn man ein richtiges Urtheil uber seine dramatischen Werken fallen wollte". Mozart met the Wendlings while visiting Mannheim in the winter of 1777–78 and later composed for them the roles of Ilia and Elettra. While their respective roles in Idomeneo are undoubtedly their most famous, these two sopranos made tangible contributions to the operas they performed at Mannheim in the 1760s and 1770s. The modern notion of a composer writing music and then finding a singer who could sing it was a foreign concept to Mozart and his contemporaries. In most cases singers were selected before the composer began to write an opera. An opera's success depended on matching a singer's acting and musical talents to a particular role, and opera subjects and texts were chosen with the strengths of particular singers in mind.
