Süssmayr was born in
Schwanenstadt in
upper Austria. He received early music lessons from his father Franz Karl Süssmayr, and later was educated at
Kremsmünster Abbey, where
Georg von Pasterwitz was a teacher. At the monastery he composed symphonies, cantatas and church music, which were performed at the abbey theatre. He moved to Vienna in 1788, where he became a student and friend of Mozart. On Mozart's last journey to
Prague in 1791, where his opera
La clemenza di Tito was first performed, Süssmayr accompanied him; Süssmayr, at Mozart's request, composed the
secco recitatives for the opera. In 1792 he became the substitute conductor at the
Burgtheater, and from 1794 to 1803 he was conductor at the
Theater am Kärntnertor. He composed operas that were staged at these theatres and at
Emanuel Schikaneder's theatres: the
Theater auf der Wieden and later the
Theater an der Wien. His health suffered because of an unregulated lifestyle, and he died in Vienna in 1803, aged 37.
Critics' assessments Max Dies wrote in
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1894): "Süßmayer's writing style is smooth, pleasing, singable, but generally fashionably superficial. Nowhere does a trace of idiosyncrasy shine out." His biographer in
Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich (1880) wrote: "While his friends called him a "second Mozart", more unbiased music critics find in his creations neither originality nor poetic depth; but they do not deny that they have melody and a charming, even folksy character, by means of which they met with a reasonably enthusiastic reception on the part of the public." ==Works==