On September 30, 1791, Mozart's final opera, 'Die Zauberflöte' ('The Magic Flute'), premiered at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna. A fantastical singspiel blending fairy tale, Masonic symbolism, and comic buffoonery, it became an immediate popular success and remains one of the most performed operas in the world. Mozart died just over two months later.
The opera was a joint venture between Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder, an actor-manager who ran a suburban Viennese theater and wrote the libretto himself. Unlike Mozart's earlier court-commissioned works, 'The Magic Flute' was designed for popular audiences, mixing lowbrow comedy, spectacular stagecraft, and serious Masonic allegory—both composer and librettist were Freemasons, and the opera is dense with the fraternity's symbolism of trials, enlightenment, and brotherhood.
Mozart conducted the premiere himself from the harpsichord. Contemporary accounts describe him as delighted by the audience's enthusiastic reception, particularly for Papageno's comic arias and the Queen of the Night's fiendishly difficult 'Der Hölle Rache' aria, still considered one of opera's great technical showpieces.
Mozart would die on December 5, 1791, just over two months later, at age 35. He reportedly kept a watch in hand during later performances, timing the opera from his sickbed and imagining the audience's reactions scene by scene—a final, poignant connection to the work.
Key people: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Emanuel Schikaneder