The Magic Flute ideals of Sarastro's community and seeks to join it. Separately, then together, Tamino and Pamina undergo severe trials of initiation, which end in triumph, with the Queen and her cohorts vanquished. The earthy Papageno, who accompanies Tamino on his quest, fails the trials completely but is rewarded anyway with the hand of his ideal female companion Papagena. The opera was the culmination of a period of increasing involvement by Mozart with Schikaneder's theatrical troupe, which since 1789 had been the resident company at the Theater auf der Wieden. Mozart was a close friend of one of the singer-composers of the
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Prague as both a composer and a performer. The great success of this visit generated a commission from the impresario Pasquale Bondini for another opera, which like "The Marriage of Figaro" was to have a libretto by Mozart's great collaborator Lorenzo Da Ponte. Mozart came to Prague for the second time to help supervise the first performance of his opera "Don Giovanni". He arrived on 4 October 1787 and stayed until 12 or 13 November. The premiere of the opera was supposed to have taken place on 15 October, but could not be arranged until 29 October 1787. The work was