Der Stein der Weisen Tamino and Sarastro). "Der Stein der Weisen" may have provided a model for that work, as the two have a similar structure and source. The work was initially popular, but was largely absent from the standard repertoire for the two centuries after 1814, American musicologist David Buch announced the discovery of a Viennese score with attributions to all five composers. This was taken by some to indicate that "Der Stein der Weisen" was a previously unknown Mozart work, although in fact only a duet ("Nun liebes Weibchen", known as the "cat duet") and two sections of the act 2 finale
Mozart and dance eighteenth-century composers were expected to be adept at producing both 'popular' and 'serious' music, and that there was no categorical difference between the two.". Abert (2007) wrote, "the most striking aspect of these dances is their almost literally inexhaustible fund of invention. Although their form offers only limited scope for experimentation, each dance differs from the others." Lindmayr-Brandl (2006) writes that "[the dances] that are accessible today, brought to life in the concert hall or in recordings, represent a precious treasure, the immediate expression of the joy of life." Mozart included a substantial ballet at the end of his opera