Anna and Mozart were known to have developed a very close and warm professional relationship, but it is less well-known that she and Mozart were also considered dear friends. She and her other British associate, the Irish tenor Michael Kelly, became quite close with Mozart and it wasn't unusual to find Kelly, Anna, her brother Stephen, and their mother, Elizabeth in the Mozart home for private musicales and parties. Mozart also could be found at dinner parties in the Storace apartment as well. It is believed by some of the most prominent and most respected Mozart scholars that Mozart and Anna may have even been romantically involved, as there was ample opportunity and reason. However, there is no solid evidence or proof that such a relationship between them existed. The great Mozart historian, Alfred Einstein wrote of their relationship:
"Between Mozart and her there must have been a deep and sympathetic understanding. She was beautiful, attractive, an artist, and a finished singer, whose salary at the Italian opera in Vienna attained a figure at that time unheard of."
He continues by stating that after Anna's return to London in 1787, she and Mozart continued their relationship through correspondence by letter:
"But he remained in correspondence with Anna Selina. What happened to these letters is a mystery. Anna Selina certainly treasured them, but perhaps before her death, which occurred in Dulwich in 1817, she destroyed them as not intended for the eyes of an outsider."
In addition to the role of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, it is believed that Mozart most certainly composed the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni for Anna. Unfortunately, she was unable to sing it because she returned to London before the opera opened in Prague. Anna had plans to return to Vienna in 1788, but contract negotiations fell through and the Emperor could not offer her the salary that she demanded due to escalations in the ongoing war with Turkey. When Mozart learned that his British friends, including Anna, were leaving Vienna, he decided that he would like to go with them and see if he could obtain a commission for an opera at the King's Theatre in London. Anna, Stephen, Kelly, and Mozart's pupil and friend, Thomas Attwood, agreed that this was a good plan and decided that they would all work together in procuring a commission for him. These plans fell through, however, when Mozart's father refused to take his son's two children while he and Constanze got settled in England. It was a disappointed Mozart who made plans to travel to Prague with Constanze for several performances of Figaro. Just before his departure for Prague, Mozart composed the great concert aria, Ch'io mi scordi di te?... Non temer amato bene, K.505 as a farewell gift for Anna. Upon his return to Vienna, the two performed the piece together at her farewell concert at the Kärntnertor Theater. What makes this concert aria unique is that it is actually a concerto for voice and piano, to be performed with an orchestra. Mozart composed the piano part to be played by himself. Einstein writes,
"...the voice and piano carry on a dialogue so intimately interwoven and so heartfelt that one feels the particular intention in every measure. And at the same time the aria is so extended that it seems more like a concerto movement than an aria. We have the impression that Mozart wanted to preserve the memory of this voice, no brilliant soprano and not suited to display of virtuosity, but full of warmth and tenderness; and that he wanted to leave with her in the piano part a souvenir of the taste and depth of his playing, and of the depth of his feeling for her: Few works of art combine such personal expression with such mastery--the intimacy of a letter with the highest grandeur of form..."
Anna died from a stroke in August of 1817, but not before burning the letters from her friend and, perhaps, lover, Wolfgang Mozart, as they were "For my eyes only".
Music Composed for Anna by Mozart Lo sposo deluso, K.430
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, 1784? - Unfinished
Anna would have sung the role of "Eugenia" had this opera been finished and staged.
Per la ricuperata salute di Ophelia
Text by Lorenzo Da Ponte, 1785 - Lost
This was a poem written by Da Ponte and et to music by Mozart, Salieri, and Cornetti.
Le Nozze di Figaro, K.492
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte - Premiered 1 May 1786 at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
The role of Susanna was tailored specifically to Anna.
Ch'io mi scordi di te... Non temer amato bene, K.505
Text from Idomeneo by Abbe Giambattista Varesco
Premiered 26 February 1787 at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna.
Mozart's incipit of Ch'io mi scordi di te, and his note,
"Für Mlle. Storace und mich." ("For Mademoiselle Storace and me.")