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
Orlando (opera) operas’ (Handel and the Opera Seria, p. 91), comparable on several counts with "The Magic Flute". The opera is scored for two recorders, two oboes, bassoon, two horns, strings and continuo (cello, lute, harpsichord). Orlando (opera) Orlando (HWV 31) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel written for the King's Theatre in London in 1733. The Italian-language libretto was adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece's "L'Orlando" after Ludovico Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso", which was also the source of Handel's operas "Alcina" and "Ariodante". More an artistic than a popular success at its first performances, "Orlando" is today recognised