Recollecting the efforts that were being made just at this time by Sonnenfels and his colleagues to introduce a higher style of entertainment in Vienna,[8] this description will not appear exaggerated. Indeed, L. Mozart fails to animadvert on the main entertainment of the Viennese, the barbarous baiting of wild animals. Under these circumstances, it is conceivable that the same people who raved about the performances of the little prodigy, felt little interest in the development of an artist's genius. To this passive indifference on the part of the public was added the active opposition of envious musicians living by their profession, who had been ready to applaud the precocity of a child, but who saw with quite other eyes the arrival in their midst of an accomplished musician ready to meet them on their own ground. L. Mozart says of them:-- I soon found that all the clavier-players and composers in Vienna were in opposition to us, Wagenseil only excepted, who, being ill, could be of little use to us. The plan adopted by these people was to avoid all opportunities of seeing us or of learning the extent of Wolfgang's attainments. Why was this? In order that when they were asked whether they had heard the boy, and what they thought of him, they might reply in the negative, and deny the possibility of what they were told; that they might assert his performances to be impostures and {THE FIRST OPERA IN VIENNA.} (68) mere buffoonery, got up beforehand, and all that he pretended to compose to have been previously learnt. Now you see why they avoided us. They knew very well that if they saw and heard they would not have a word to say without the risk of losing their honour. But I set a trap for one of these good folks. I persuaded some one to give me quiet notice of his presence, and to induce him to bring an extraordinarily difficult concerto, which was to be laid before Wolfgang. This all took place, and he had the satisfaction of hearing his concerto played by Wolfgang as if he knew it by heart. The astonishment of this composer and clavier-player, the expressions of which he made use in his admiration, let us all into the secret of what I have told you above. He ended by saying: "I must honestly declare my opinion that this boy is the greatest musician in the world; I could not have believed it." But a solitary triumph of this sort could not do much against the secret enmity of an envious cabal. The Emperor himself furnished a better weapon by a proposal which was calculated to display Wolfgang's powers in the most brilliant light. He ordered him to compose an opera, and intimated a wish that the boy should himself conduct the work at the clavier. Both father and son eagerly seized on this proposal, the more so as success would not only insure their position in Vienna, but would pave the way for the young artist to Italy and the Italian stage.