A picture of the ‘reconstructed face’ of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has caused a stir in the national UK press due to its uncanny resemblance to a well known Coronation Street star.
Among the major papers to pick up on the story are The Mirror, which reports that Mozart’s image ‘has drawn comparisons to Coronation Street‘s Martin Platt’ and The Sun which, under the headline ‘Mozart’s Soap Twin’, says the revelation has had ‘soap fans doing a double take thanks to its uncanny resemblance to a Coronation Street legend’.
For classical music to appear in the UK mainstream media is fairly rare, though in this instance there is a bit of a catch. The reason why the image of Mozart looks like Martin Platt off Coronation Street is because it is, in fact, Martin Platt off Coronation Street. The exciting news is, alas, a clever hoax.
‘Asking if Mozart might have been in One Direction’
Theoretically, the likeness of Mozart was created by scientists using facial modelling techniques on the great Austrian composer’s skull. However, no specific researchers or institutes are revealed in any of the reports, and a quick comparison of ‘Mozart’ and Platt (actor Sean Wilson) suggests that all it took was a quick flip of a photo and the smallest amount of photoshop work.
In the meantime, clearly no fans of British TV culture but still taken in by the hoax, quirky classical music gossip site Slipped Disc has taken an altogether different angle to the story, asking if Mozart might have been in One Direction and suggesting that he looks like ‘a disaffected member of a short-life boy bank (sic)’.
We are currently trying to get in touch with Sean Wilson to learn if he may himself have a few symphonies, operas and string quartets up his sleeve. Watch this space…