Mozart's Magical Mystical Mystery Box: Music Box 6 LbNA #24350 (ARCHIVED)

Mozart’s Magical Mystical Mystery Box: Music Box Series #6
Placed by Viewfinder

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart loved playing musical and mental games, so he would certainly have loved letterboxing! Since he isn't an active letterboxer, though, I've created this mystery box in his honor as part of my Music Box Series.

Mozart’s magical, mystical, whimsical and sophisticated opera which inspired this letterbox is lively with elements of fantasy and free-flying imagination. The plot is complex with many layers of meaning and many characters, but with easily-accessible charm and glorious Mozart music. It is often the first opera to which children are taken because of its fairy-tale qualities.

Mozart wrote this opera in 1791, not long after the French Revolution. The opera’s premiere was held shortly before he died. The opera is also full of ideas which were considered highly revolutionary and somewhat dangerous at the time (the autonomy of the individual, self-determination); ideals (power, wisdom, beauty); and symbols (aprons, hammers, compasses, a pyramid with an all-seeing eye). Rituals, tests, initiations are involved in the plot.

Marc Chagall, David Hockney, and Maurice Sendak are among the artists who have produced artwork and stage set designs inspired by this opera. Ingmar Bergman and, more recently, Kenneth Branagh have transposed the opera to film.

To find Mozart’s Magical, Mystical Mystery letterbox, first solve the following:

1. Year in which Mozart died (second digit):____
2. Mozart’s birth year (last digit):____
3. Last digit of the year in which the opera premiered:___
4. Number of times Mozart visited Ft. Worth, Texas:____
5. The number of acts in this opera:___

Use this five-digit code to find an appropriately mystical, architecturally and historically significant building which bears a symbolic connection to Mozart’s magical, mystical opera. The monumentally imposing building sits majestically on its seven and one-half acre hilltop site facing due east, and is bounded by two major streets which run due north-south and due east-west. The building was designed by Ft. Worth architect Wiley G. Clarkson and built in 1931.

To find the letterbox, enter the parking lot that lies along the north side of the building (access to the parking lot is from the street at the rear, on the west side). You will see a long painted concrete retaining wall along the sidewalk that parallels the building’s north side, beyond which is a jasmine bed and lawn. Park as close as possible to the east end of this concrete retaining wall and look under the jasmine near the short crossties at the NE corner of the jasmine bed. Tucked back under the jasmine, out of sight, you will discover Mozart’s Magical Mystical Mystery Box.

Please exercise caution and stealth if necessary to avoid being seen – this is a busy place! Please reseal bags carefully and recover well. Be sure the box isn’t visible to the enthusiastic groundskeepers or casual visitors.

Recommended listening while finding Mozart’s letterbox: What else? The Overture to the opera!