Mozart manuscript sells for £750,000

An original manuscript of the finale of Mozart’s best-loved opera, the Marriage of Figaro, today sold for more than £700,000 at auction.

The score for the woodwind, brass and timpani fetched £751,250, including the buyer’s premium, when it went under the hammer to an anonymous buyer at Sotheby’s in London.

Experts believe the 10-page script for the final scene of Act 4 was written in one sitting, without any break - a remarkable feat for a composer.

The score, composed in 1786, is virtually complete and entirely in the hand of Mozart.

The Marriage of Figaro is the most performed of all Mozart operas, and is widely considered to be his dramatic masterpiece.

More than 200 letters by composer Rossini to his parents sold for £107,750 at the auction.

A complete manuscript of Ravel’s orchestral version of Mussorgsky’s original piano work, Pictures at an Exhibition, also fetched £905,250.