Ladies with dirty jokes struck a chord

Jane Glover, who is well known as a conductor, has done a clever and beneficial thing: written a book about Mozart that is a pleasure to read and has an unusual viewpoint. She proclaims that she has done no original research but that she has "read copiously the fruits of others' diligence with admiration, respect and gratitude" - and with profit to us all.

Mozart shows in his operas his empathy with all his characters, even the nasty ones; he loves all men but seems to love women even more.

Not so much perhaps in Don Giovanni , but certainly in the other operas: Susanna in Figaro usually steals the show; Fiordiligi, Dorabella and clever little Despina are surely more interesting than the chaps in Cosi Fan Tutti ; and Pamina in The Magic Flute gets the best, and most tragic, aria.

Dr Jane (as she is known to most of her colleagues, with respect and affection), gives us a full picture of the women in Mozart's life and operas.

Mozart's biography takes up roughly half the book, his operatic characters the other half. The spotlight falls first on Nannerl, the slightly older sister of Wolfgang. She was also a fine keyboard player, and the two of them made music in private and public, notably in that first grand tour of Germany, France and England organised by Leopold, their father. Papa was a violinist and functionary in the court of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, where the family lived and the children were born.

Leopold's career was a humble one, although he wrote a treatise on violin-playing that was in print for two centuries. But he realised that in his children, in Wolfgang especially, he had a potential meal ticket for the family, and he tried to make sure that the boy did not leave its confines. In subsequent tours, the aim was not only to make money but also to secure a permanent appointment for Wolfgang. No jobs were forthcoming, and too often the children were rewarded with objets rather than cash (at one time, nine gold watches and a dozen snuff boxes).

Dr Jane finds Leopold fussy, bossy and not above being economical with the truth. Nannerl and Wolfgang delighted in each other's company, and nothing was barred (hence the well-bruited lavatorial language). But in their teens, Nannerl was left at home and she could be tetchy, often ill, and fussy like her father. After Wolfgang finally got away from the family and went to live in Vienna in 1781, contact was minimal. She never saw Mozart's children. She herself eventually got married, to an older man, and lived far from Vienna and Salzburg.

The first girlfriend in Mozart's life was a cousin, known as the Basle, and they enjoyed a happy relationship full of fun and more lavatorial humour (why is such humour pooh-poohed - if that is the right word - when the loo is such a large factor in a child's life?). Then came Aloysia, a stunning singer, but she gave Mozart the brush-off, so he wooed her sister instead.

Constanze, also a singer, was not quite in Aloysia's class, but Mozart came to adore her. They married and had many children, but few survived. Until recently, Constanze had as bad a press as Leopold, but the musicologist H. C. Robbins-Landon helped to change all that, and Dr Jane assents. Constanze was obviously fun and good in bed.

Mama Mozart was Maria Anna - patient, long-suffering and not altogether appreciated by her husband. She died in Paris on one of those job-seeking trips, this time just with Wolfgang (always allotted a room with another family member, presumably to make sure he was not misbehaving).

Were there facets of Mozart's character that put off possible future employers? If there were, you will not find them mentioned in this book: Wolfgang can do no wrong in the eyes of Dr Jane. Is she blinded and besotted by the quality, the sheer genius of the music? If so, who can blame her?

She quotes a letter from Haydn in London. When he heard of Mozart's death, he declared that he "could not believe that Providence should so soon summon an irreplaceable man to the other world".

John Amis is music critic of The Tablet .