Opera in German outskirts of the city. In 1791, he persuaded Mozart to set one of his libretti, "The Magic Flute". This proved to be no ordinary "Singspiel". Though the traditional farcical elements remained, Mozart added a new seriousness, particularly in the music for Sarastro and his priests. Even more than "Die Entführung", the "Magic Flute" pointed the way forward for future German opera. The greatest German composer of the next generation, Beethoven, seized on "The Magic Flute"'s blend of domestic comedy and high seriousness for his only opera, "Fidelio", the story of a devoted wife who saves her husband from political imprisonment.
Mozart and scatology Mozart and scatology Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart displayed scatological humour in his letters and a few recreational compositions. This material has long been a puzzle for Mozart scholarship. One view held by scholars deals with the scatology by seeking an understanding of the role of it in Mozart's family, his society and his times, while another view holds that such humour was the result of an "impressive list" of psychiatric conditions from which Mozart is claimed to have suffered. A letter of 5 November 1777 to Mozart's cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart is an example of Mozart's use of scatology. The