Curated playlist
Operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- The Magic FluteThe Magic Flute, known in German as Die Zauberflöte, premiered on the 30th of September 1791 at a suburban Viennese playhouse called the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden. The composer was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was in the pit that…
- La finta giardinieraLa finta giardiniera received its first performance on the 13th of January, 1775, at a theater in Munich. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had written it there that same month. He was eighteen years old. The opera is catalogued as K. 196, and its…
- The Marriage of FigaroThe Marriage of Figaro premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on the 1st of May 1786, and on that first night the audience demanded five numbers be performed a second time before the evening was over. On the 8th of May, seven were encored.…
- IdomeneoIdomeneo, re di Creta received its first performance on the 29th of January 1781 at the Cuvilliés Theatre in Munich. The city press reviewed that evening with a notable omission. The notice praised set designer Lorenzo Quaglio and called…
- Don GiovanniDon Giovanni opened at the National Theatre of Bohemia in Prague on the 29th of October 1787, and within days the city's newspapers were declaring that Prague had never heard anything like it. That rapturous reception began a story that…
- Così fan tutteCosì fan tutte made its debut on the 26th of January 1790, at the Burgtheater in Vienna, and it arrived carrying a wager. Two soldiers had bet a cynical old philosopher that their fiancées would remain faithful. The philosopher was certain…
- Lucio SillaLucio Silla, K. 135, arrived on the stage of Milan's Teatro Regio Ducale on the 26th of December 1772, performed by a company of singers and conducted by its composer: a sixteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The opera is a full Italian…
- Lo sposo delusoLo sposo deluso sits in Mozart's catalogue as K. 430, a ghost of an opera. Mozart composed it in 1783 as a two-act comic work. Only a 20-minute fragment from the first act survives today. The full title announces its dramatic premise with…
- Der SchauspieldirektorDer Schauspieldirektor opened not in a public opera house but in a private room at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, on the 7th of February 1786, performed at the command of the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II for eighty invited guests. Mozart…
- Die Entführung aus dem SerailDie Entführung aus dem Serail opened at the Vienna Burgtheater on the 16th of July 1782, with its twenty-six-year-old composer on the podium. The first two performances alone brought in 1,200 florins. That opening night set off a chain of…
- Ascanio in AlbaAscanio in Alba, K. 111, arrived in Milan not as a concert or a chamber recital, but as a political gesture wrapped in silk. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria commissioned it for the wedding of her son, Archduke Ferdinand Karl, to Maria…
- Mitridate, re di PontoMitridate, re di Ponto reached the stage of the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan on the 26th of December 1770, with its composer just fourteen years old. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had spent 1770 touring Italy, absorbing operatic style from…