A FAR FETCHED COMPARISON:- Sibelius's life was twice+ WAM's; but he seems to have written Zero in the latter part?. Bill(Y). [For all intents and purposes, Sibelius stopped composing at age 64 though he lived on another 28 years (died 3 months shy of his 92nd birthday). He really didn't stop composing - he continnued to try - but could seem to accomplish anything which pleased him enough to follow through; probably the result of a combination of his long-term alcoholism and age killing his inspiration. I think the composer who's most interesting in comparison to Mozart is Rossini. He lived well past his 76th birthday, but stopped composing opera entirely at the age of 37, chosing a well-funded retirement writing the occasional small-scale sacred or secular vocal work. His operas made him wealthy man, and it seemed to significantly stifle his drive to create, perhaps just in time as hs creative pace was killing him. If Mozart had seen the same success with his operas, I wonder if he would have continued to work as relentlessly as he did toward the end. -Dave]