Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), Mozart’s last opera, was premiered on September 30, 1791 on the stage of a theater in the suburbs of Vienna hosted by Emanuel Schikaneder, a long-time friend and freemason like the composer. Author of the libretto and himself an actor, Schikaneder participated in the cast in the comic and talkative role of the bird catcher Papageno. This collaboration results in both a fantastic tale and an initiatory allegory which reconciles the popular lightness of the Singspiel – alternating word and song – and the ideals of the Enlightenment.
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