Comical Duet for Soprano and Bass, “Nun, liebes Weibchen” (K. Anh.A 64)
av Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“Nun, liebes Weibchen” (K. Anh.A 64) is a short German comic duet in F major, associated with Vienna in 1790, when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was 34. Although the work’s attribution is uncertain in some catalog traditions, it survives in sources that circulate it as a duet for soprano and bass with orchestra, and its theatrical wit aligns closely with Mozart’s late Viennese stage manner.
Background and Context
In 1790 Mozart was still active in Vienna’s theatrical world, writing for the stage while navigating an increasingly precarious financial and professional situation. Nun, liebes Weibchen appears in later catalog and edition traditions under multiple Köchel designations (including K. 625 and K. 592a), and it is often linked to the popular Singspiel milieu of Emanuel Schikaneder’s circle at the Theater auf der Wieden (first performance of Der Stein der Weisen is dated to 11 September 1790 in an early editorial report). In the same report, the duet is presented as a number from that opera and dated accordingly, even while the editor notes that the autograph score was not available to him at the time.[2]
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Musical Character
On the page, this is a single-movement duet in F major for soprano and bass with orchestra—winds (flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons), brass (2 horns in F), and strings—set to a German text whose opening is given as “Nun liebes Weibchen, ziehst mit mir.”[1] The scoring suggests a genuine stage number rather than keyboard music: the vocal lines are supported by light, conversational orchestral writing, and the quick alternation between the two voices belongs to comic dialogue onstage more than to domestic song. Even in so small a piece, the bass part is treated as a character voice—firm, rhythmically pointed—while the soprano answers with brighter, more agile phrasing, producing a neatly balanced comic duo rather than a showpiece aria.[1]
[1] IMSLP work page: scoring, key, text incipit, and catalog cross-references for “Nun, liebes Weibchen” (K. 625 / K. 592a / K9 Anh.A 64).
[2] Breitkopf & Härtel, Mozart’s Werke (Series VI) editorial report (Revisionsbericht): notes on sources and dating in relation to *Der Stein der Weisen* and the Theater auf der Wieden (11 Sept 1790).