Hasse, one of the most successful and highly-respected opera composers of the eighteenth-century, served as Kapellmeister at the court of Frederick August of Saxony from 1731 and lived in Vienna for much of the time between 1760 and 1772, when he retired to Venice. He was music tutor to Maria Theresia, a favourite of King Philip V of Spain, and described by Leopold Mozart as `the father of music` (letter of 30 July 1768). Hasse was apparently one of the few musicians in Vienna to take Leopold Mozart`s side in his dispute with the court over the suppressed performance of Bastien et Bastienne and wrote letters of recommendation for Mozart in anticipation of his first trip to Italy; one, to G. M. Ortes, describes Mozart as `already a composer and a master of music. … The boy is moreover handsome, vivacious, graceful and full of good manners; and knowing him, it is difficult to avoid loving him`. Mozart and Hasse met again in Milan in 1771: both were commissioned to write theatrical works for the wedding of Archduke Ferdinand and Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d`Este. But while Mozart`s serenata Ascanio in Alba was a success, Hasse`s opera Il Ruggiero was a failure; a local newspaper reported that `The opera has not met with success … The serenata, however, has met with general applause, both for the text and for the music`, confirming Leopold Mozart`s assertion in a letter of 19 October 1771 that `Wolfgang`s serenata has `knocked Hasse`s opera into a cocked hat.`