The Magic Flute outside Vienna (21 September 1792) in Lemberg, then in Prague. It then made "triumphal progress through Germany's opera houses great and small", and with the early 19th century spread to essentially all the countries of Europe—and eventually, everywhere in the world—where opera is cultivated. As Branscombe documents, the earlier performances were often of highly altered, sometimes even mutilated, versions of the opera (see "Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith"). Productions of the past century have tended to be more faithful to Mozart's music, though faithful rendering of Mozart and Schikaneder's original (quite explicit) stage directions and dramatic vision continues to be rare; with
The Smurfs and the Magic Flute more animated features, many of which were distributed by their short-lived children's subsidiary, Clubhouse Pictures. The theatrical poster for the film boasted, "It's the Smurfs' ONE and ONLY full-length motion picture...ever!" Prior to "Flute", however, a black-and-white compilation feature, "Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs", was released in Belgium in the mid-1960s, and had been forgotten by the time this film debuted in the US in 1983. The film features Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Hefty Smurf (named "Strong-man Smurf" in the UK dub) Handy Smurf, Clumsy Smurf, Greedy Smurf (named "Sweetie" in the American dub), Poet Smurf, Farmer Smurf, and