Emanuel Schikaneder elements and traditional fairy-tale themes (see "Libretto of The Magic Flute"). Schikaneder took the role of Papageno—a character reflecting the Hanswurst tradition, and thus suited to his skills—at the premiere. According to the dramatist Ignaz Franz Castelli, Schikaneder also may have given advice to Mozart concerning the musical setting of his libretto: The late bass singer Sebastian Mayer told me that Mozart had originally written the duet where Papageno and Papagena first see each other quite differently from the way in which we now hear it. Both originally cried out "Papageno!", "Papagena!" a few times in amazement. But when Schikaneder
Mozart and Salieri (opera) on his "Requiem", which a stranger in black commissioned from him. Mozart recalls Salieri's collaboration with Pierre Beaumarchais and asks if it could be true that Beaumarchais once poisoned someone, for genius and criminality are surely incompatible. Salieri then surreptitiously pours poison into Mozart's drink. Mozart begins to play at the keyboard, as Salieri begins to cry. Mozart sees this, but Salieri urges Mozart to continue. Mozart begins to feel ill, and leaves. Salieri ends the opera pondering Mozart's belief that a genius could not murder: did not Michelangelo kill for his commissions at the Vatican, or were those idle