Marie-Antoinette – Back Cover

At Schönbrunn Palace, the big day has arrived: the young woman still know as ‘Petite Antoine’ is about to set off on a one-way journey to France.

As she heads to her dressing room, each step along the familiar hallways of her childhood home brings back a memory, like that young musician who tumbled at her feet one day and even promised to marry her. Would she ever see him again? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was his name… Lost in her reverie, at first, she doesn’t hear the voice calling her name. No, it’s not time for her harpsichord lesson with the famous composer Gluck, nor her dance lesson with the great ballet master Noverre… Her family is waiting; she must hasten to join them. Obedient as always, she answers the last questions and minds the final instructions of her mother, Maria Theresa of Austria. In the courtyard, forty-eight carriages are waiting, each hitched to six anxious horses. One last kiss and adieu.

Marianne Vourch offers us a first “Musical Portrait” of Marie Antoinette. A key figure in French history, the music-loving queen was also a prime patron of the arts; cheering, inspiring and imposing artists at the Court of Versailles!