Benedikt Schack
Benedikt Schack was present at one of the most intimate and devastating moments in music history: the last afternoon of Mozart's life. On the 5th of December 1791, a small group gathered around a dying man's bed. They sang through the unfinished Requiem together, until Mozart began to weep and could go no further. Schack was there, holding the soprano line as he apparently always had. Eleven hours later, Mozart was dead.
Who was this man who stood so close to genius? He was a tenor, a composer, a close friend, and the very first person ever to sing the role of Tamino in The Magic Flute. Yet his name rarely appears outside Mozart scholarship. How did a Bohemian chorister become Mozart's collaborator and companion? What did Mozart actually write in Schack's operas? And what happened to Schack after the curtain fell on that extraordinary friendship?
Benedikt Emanuel Schack was born on the 7th of February 1758 in Mirotice, Bohemia, then part of the Habsburg monarchy. The town is now in the Czech Republic. His full surname appears in historical records under at least four spellings: Schack, Schak, Žák, Ziak, and Cziak, reflecting the mixed linguistic world of Bohemian culture in that period.
His musical training began early. By 1773 he was singing as a chorister in the cathedral in Prague, following a path similar to Joseph and Michael Haydn before him. Two years later he moved to Vienna, where he studied medicine, philosophy, and singing simultaneously. His voice teacher was a tenor who had himself performed under Joseph Haydn.
From 1780, Schack spent several years as Kapellmeister to Prince Heinrich von Schönaich-Carolath in Silesia, running the musical establishment of a minor noble household. That appointment gave him practical experience as both conductor and composer before he entered the world of popular theater. In 1786, he joined the traveling theatrical troupe of Emanuel Schikaneder, serving the company as tenor and as a composer of Singspiele, the popular German-language genre mixing spoken dialogue with songs.
Leopold Mozart heard Schack's debut with the Schikaneder troupe when it visited Salzburg in 1786. His verdict, written in a letter to his daughter Maria Anna (Nannerl) in nearby St. Gilgen, was unmistakable: "He sings excellently well and has a beautiful voice, with an easy and flexible throat and a beautiful method. This man truly sings very beautifully."
Schikaneder's troupe settled in Vienna in 1789 and took up residency at the suburban Theater auf der Wieden. It was there that Schack drew closer to Mozart, who was growing more involved with the company. The relationship was both personal and creative. Schack apparently asked Mozart for compositional help, and over time that help became substantial.
A story published in the Baierisches Musik-Lexikon in Munich in 1811 described the arrangement: Mozart would arrive at Schack's lodgings to take him for a walk, and while Schack dressed, Mozart would sit at the writing desk and compose passages in Schack's operas. The account concludes that several passages in those operas derive from Mozart's own hand.
Mozart also wrote a set of eight variations, catalogued as K. 613, on an aria from Schack's Singspiel Der dumme Gärtner. The aria was titled "Ein Weib ist das herrlichste Ding."
In 1790, Schack and his fellow singer-composers within the Schikaneder troupe co-wrote an opera called Der Stein der Weisen, meaning "The Philosopher's Stone." Mozart contributed to that project too, including a duet catalogued as K. 625/592a, titled "Nun liebes Weibchen," and possibly other passages. The work drew on fairy-tale material and employed much the same cast in roles that resemble their later parts in The Magic Flute.
A year later, when The Magic Flute premiered in 1791 with music by Mozart and a libretto by Schikaneder, Schack stood at the center of the stage as Tamino. According to the New Grove, it is presumed he also performed Tamino's flute solos, though some scholars dispute that point. A record from 1815 shows that Schack sang the role a total of 116 times.
His wife, Elisabeth Weinhold, who was also a singer, appeared alongside him in that premiere. She took the role of the Third Lady.
Only two months after The Magic Flute opened, Mozart died. The 1827 account of Schack's presence at that final rehearsal of the Requiem appeared first in an anonymous obituary, published 36 years after the event itself.
Schack moved through several posts in the years that followed. He held positions in Graz from 1793 and in Munich from 1796. As his singing voice declined, he retired in 1813 and lived on a pension for the remaining years of his life.
Toward the end, he received a letter from the former Constanze Mozart. She had remarried in 1809, becoming Constanze Nissen, and her second husband Georg Nikolaus Nissen was working on a biography of her first. She turned to Schack for memories. Her words to him have survived: "I could think of absolutely no one who knew him better or to whom he was more devoted than you... Of great and general interest will be what you can instance of Mozart's few compositions in your operas."
Schack never replied. He died in Munich on the 10th of December 1826 before he could write back. Whatever he remembered of those afternoons at the writing desk, the walks never taken, the Requiem left unfinished, he took with him.
Der Stein der Weisen, the opera he helped create before The Magic Flute, has since been revived after the discovery of an early manuscript copy. Boston Baroque under Martin Pearlman performed it, and Bampton Classical Opera staged it in 2002.
Common questions
Who was Benedikt Schack and what is he known for?
Benedikt Schack (1758-1826) was an Austrian tenor and composer of the Classical era who was a close personal friend of Mozart. He is best known as the first performer of the role of Tamino in the premiere of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute in 1791.
Was Benedikt Schack present at Mozart's death?
According to an account first published in an anonymous obituary of Schack in 1827, Schack participated in a rehearsal of Mozart's Requiem on the last day of Mozart's life, the 5th of December 1791. The account describes Mozart weeping during the Lacrimosa and dying eleven hours later. The story appeared 36 years after the event.
Did Mozart compose music in Benedikt Schack's operas?
Yes. A story published in the Baierisches Musik-Lexikon in Munich in 1811 states that Mozart would sit at Schack's writing desk while Schack dressed and compose passages in his operas. Mozart also wrote eight variations (K. 613) on an aria from Schack's Singspiel Der dumme Gärtner, and contributed a duet (K. 625/592a) to their collaborative opera Der Stein der Weisen.
How many times did Benedikt Schack perform as Tamino in The Magic Flute?
A record from 1815 indicates that Schack sang the role of Tamino a total of 116 times.
Where was Benedikt Schack born and what was his early training?
Benedikt Schack was born on the 7th of February 1758 in Mirotice, Bohemia, then part of the Habsburg monarchy. He sang as a cathedral chorister in Prague from 1773 and later moved to Vienna in 1775 to study medicine, philosophy, and singing.
What was Constanze Mozart's connection to Benedikt Schack?
Constanze Mozart, who remarried in 1809 and became Constanze Nissen, wrote to Schack near the end of his life seeking his memories of Mozart for her second husband's biography. She described Schack as the person to whom Mozart was most devoted. Schack died in December 1826 before he could reply.
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