Moving
along rather quickly through opera history, today let’s look at a famous late
18th-century composer whose operas are still widely performed and
loved today: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The
Cincinnati Opera will perform Mozart’s The
Magic Flute this summer and I certainly hope you will have the opportunity
to see it! Mozart wrote this opera during the last year of his life in
collaboration with librettist, opera singer, and theater director Emanuel
Schikaneder. Both men were personally affiliated with Freemasonry, resulting in
certain masonic themes showing up throughout the work. Mozart wrote this opera
as a German Singspiel – a light opera with spoken dialogue rather than
recitative. He drew from multiple 18th-century styles including the
splendor of the opera seria voice, the folk humor characteristic of German
Singspiel, the use of choral sections, and fantastic solo arias as exhibited by
the Queen of the Night here.
Mozart
conducted the premiere of The Magic Flute
in September 1791 and Schikaneder sang the role of Papageno. The opera was
a huge success, but unfortunately Mozart did not live to see just how much of a
hit it would become. He became ill that fall and died in December of the same
year.
