Based on the life of Johann Nepomuk Hummel, an impish Vietnamese scientist invites a hypnotherapist to unleash Mozart’s student prodigy and Beethoven’s frenemy.  His haunting legacy uncorked, Hummel takes over.

SYNOPSIS:

A young Vietnamese doing research, Dr. Trung Nguyen, bursts uncontrollably into tears upon hearing classical piano music. For this “affective disorder” Trung sees a hypnotherapist, Dr. Stein, in Bratislava, Slovakia, where he resides.

Dr. Stein discovers that Trung is the reincarnated Johann Nepomuk Hummel, once stellar composer, top pianist and piano improviser in Europe. A child prodigy who had lived with Mozart and studied with the master before making a name on his own grand tour, Hummel becomes the friend and rival—frenemy—of Beethoven. With two separate musical schools in Vienna following either Hummel or Beethoven in the early 1800s, the gifted young men also rival for the affections of singer Elisabeth Roeckel. She marries Hummel, while Beethoven’s For Elise goes on to eternal acclaim.

During past life regressions, Dr. Stein delves into Hummel’s life searching for the cause of Trung’s sudden onset of glacial tears. But Trung begins speaking as Hummel even when not regressed. This short, innocent, even child-like Vietnamese man frighteningly spills into the swampy frustration of the once highly acclaimed Hummel, basically forgotten in the world in comparison with his contemporaries. Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Chopin, Liszt are all here. Further, along with great German poet Goethe, Hummel’s close friend in Weimar, come lingering tales of the infamous Mesmer who looms in the background. (The father of mesmerism and hypnosis was also Mozart’s dear friend.)

What causes Trung to shed tears upon hearing piano music? His rivalry with Beethoven, who has won and outlived him in popular culture? Hummel remained true to Mozart’s classical style during the transition to romanticism. What’s to cry about two hundred years later?

Trung lives the dream and pays the price. He deserves a happy ending. Just don’t invite him to the Freud Museum in Vienna, where things get out of hand. While Trung’s mother tries via Skype to intercede with an exorcist, Dr. Stein probes the psychological pitfalls of international fame swept under a rug of obscurity. It’s as if Whitney Houston or Michael Jackson were totally forgotten within decades of their passing. With virtuosos coming out of the woodwork, Deja Virtuoso is a fount of talent, brilliance unleashed in ambition and pride.