Libretto of The Magic Flute Libretto of The Magic Flute "The Magic Flute" is a celebrated opera composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart employed a libretto written by his close colleague Emanuel Schikaneder, the director of the Theater auf der Wieden at which the opera premiered in the same year. (He also played the role of Papageno). Grout and Williams describe the libretto thus: Schikaneder, a kind of literary magpie, filched characters, scenes, incidents, and situations from others' plays and novels and with Mozart's assistance organized them into a libretto that ranges all the way from buffoonery to high solemnity, from childish faerie
Haydn and Mozart symphony and a chorus, both probably from [the oratorio] "Il ritorno di Tobia"") and Mozart ("a new concert aria, probably 'Misero! o sogno!' [K. 431], and, on the first night, a piano concerto") At the time of this meeting, Haydn was the most celebrated composer in Europe. Mozart's own reputation was definitely on the rise. His opera "The Abduction from the Seraglio" had been premiered with great success in Vienna, and was being produced in several other cities. Haydn would have been about 52 at the time, Mozart about 28. Jens Peter Larsen suggests that "quartet playing was central to