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 it was only a mixed success at its premiere in Vienna in May 1786. Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro", which premiered in Vienna, was produced in late 1786 in Prague with tremendous success. The reviewer for the Prague newspaper "Oberpostamtzeitung" wrote "No piece (so everyone here asserts) has ever caused such a sensation as the Italian opera "Die Hochzeit des Figaro", which has already been given several times here with unlimited applause." The orchestra and some affiliated music lovers funded a personal visit by Mozart so he could hear the production. Mozart first came to Prague on 11 January