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
Mozart and dance appearance, and according to Solomon the income from the dances partly helped Mozart to recover from the financial distress into which he had fallen in the later 1780s. In later years they were frequently reprinted. Today, however, it seems that the dances are little performed or recorded, at least in comparison to other Mozart works such as the mature symphonies or concertos. Nevertheless, they are praised by critics. Alex Ross has written of the dances (2006), "They are exasperating to listen to in large quantity, but they are full of lively, even zany details, and serve as a reminder that