Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756–91),Austrian musician and composer. Born in Salzburg, though seldom remaining long in one place, he travelled extensively throughout Europe, where he performed or conducted many of his compositions. In his short life of only 35 years, Mozart wrote over 600 works in every kind of musical form available to him, including 22 operas. The last of these, and his final completed composition, is the famous ‘magic opera’, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute, 1791), principally based upon a fairy tale by A. J. Liebeskind (originally, Lulu, oder die Zauberflöte) in Wieland's collection of oriental tales called Dschinnistan (1786). Other sources for the magical and ritual elements may have included Philipp Hafner's play Megära (1763) and the novel Sethos (1731) by Jean Terrasson. Emanuel Schikaneder (1751–1812), long‐time friend of...
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