The Magic Flute Premieres: Mozart's Final Opera
Mozart didn't live to see it succeed. He died ten weeks after The Magic Flute premiered — but those ten weeks mattered, because he watched it become a hit. Ordinary Viennese audiences, not aristocrats, packed the Freihaus-Theater, a working-class venue he'd chosen deliberately. He reportedly conducted from the wings, banging along on a glockenspiel backstage one night just to mess with a singer he disliked. It was his 626th and final composition. He was 35.
September 30, 1791
235 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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