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 had allegedly rejected it. Mozart arrived on 28 August 1791 and left in the third week of September. The opera received its first performance on 6 September 1791. Unlike the first two visits, Mozart was not the center of attention on his last visit. Rather, his activities were much overshadowed by the ceremonies of the Imperial court. The grief exhibited for Mozart in Prague after his death on 5 December 1791 far exceeded that witnessed in any other European city. Daniel E. Freeman has pointed out that whereas Mozart (one of history's greatest musicians) was laid to rest in Vienna