The Magic Flute Study Guide - Manitoba Opera

A Golden Period of Composition (1786–89)
Far from being the talented fool of popular myth, all evidence
suggests that Mozart was a highly intelligent and literate man, who
cared deeply about the construction of his opera librettos. He was at
great pains to find a librettist to match his musical talents. In 1785,
he found such a man, and began his collaboration with the brilliant
Italian librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. Together, over the next five
years, they created three of Mozart’s greatest operas. The first, Le
nozze di Figaro, opened at the Vienna Court Opera in 1786. It later
had enormous success in Prague, which led to Mozart being
commissioned to write Don Giovanni, performed there in 1787, and
in Vienna the following year.
While his composition was going well, Mozart was still burdened with money troubles during the later
1780s, and suffered bouts of illness. He had a minor position as a court musician, was always reliant
on teaching to help him make a living, and often asked his friends for financial loans.
The Final Years (1790–91)
Mozart’s last two years were frantically busy. His last collaboration with Lorenzo da Ponte, Così fan
tutte, had its first performance in Vienna in January 1790. The opera was less successful than the
other Da Ponte operas. Mozart, who now had a young family to support, spent much of 1790
desperately trying to get a full-time salaried post in Vienna.
In 1791, Mozart began a new partnership with his
friend, the actor and theatre manager Emanuel
Schikaneder, which was to produce The Magic
Flute. Prague also asked him to compose an opera,
for celebrations of the coronation of Leopold II as
King of Bohemia, and a mysterious stranger asked
him to write a requiem setting (the stranger turned
out to be a Count who wanted to pass the
composition off as his own). Mozart had completed
The Magic Flute by the time he set off for Prague
for the performances of his opera there, La
clemenza di Tito. This was his first opera seria for
nearly a decade, and was based on a libretto by
the great dramatist Pietro Metastasio. It had a
mixed reception, but soon rose in public esteem.
Mozart’s last months were spent working on the
requiem, and completing a clarinet concerto, one of his greatest orchestral works, for his friend Anton
Stadler. By November 1791, he was seriously unwell and bedridden. He died on December 5th, it is
thought of rheumatic fever. There is no evidence to suggest, as legend has it, that he was poisoned,
and nor was he buried in a pauper’s grave. Mass burials in unmarked graves were customary in
Vienna at the time, and one account says that several musicians, including Salieri, followed Mozart’s
body to the cemetery. All the obituary notices for Mozart acknowledged his greatness as a composer,
and his music has never left the repertory since his death.
Mozart playing
In his short life Mozart produced over 600 works including:
� 41 symphonies
� 27 piano concertos
� 19 piano sonatas
� 16 operas
� masses
� chamber music
� orchestral pieces
13
Prague: Mozart's
room at Bertramka
The young Mozart in London