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Summary

Raaff, Anton (b. Gelsdorf, near Bonn, 6 May 1714; d. Munich, 28 May 1797). A highly acclaimed German tenor, whose international career took him to such cities as Bonn, Vienna, Lisbon, Madrid, Naples, Florence, Mannheim, Paris and Munich, Raaff became a good friend of Mozart in Mannheim and Paris (1777–8). He is mentioned copiously (and affectionately) in the family correspondence, especially between 1777 and 1781, although Mozart and his mother offered mixed reports on his singing and acting. Both thought his voice was past its best in Mannheim in 1777 (14 Nov. 1777); Mozart was forced ‘to pull out a handkerchief and hide a smile’. Mozart also thought him a poor operatic actor: ‘he had to die [on stage], and while dying sing a very very very long aria in slow time; well, he died with a grin on his face, and towards the end of the aria his voice gave out so badly that one really couldn't stand it any longer’. But they both changed their tune somewhat in Paris a few months later. Mozart remembered writing unfavourably about Raaff's voice from Mannheim, but admitted liking it much more in Paris, in spite of the fact that Raaff was clearly past his prime (12 June 1778). Maria Anna Mozart particularly liked Raaff's voice (12 June 1778): ‘One day he came especially to sing to me and sang three arias, which gave me great pleasure.