[Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. (1756–1791)] Schikaneder, Emanuel. (1751-1812)
Die Zauberflöte - LIBRETTO
Die Zauberflöte. Eine grosse Oper in zwey Aufzügen. Die Musik dazu ist von Herrn Wolfgang Amade Mozart, Kapellmeister, und wirklichen k.k. Kammer Kompositeur. [no place] [no printer] 1795. 8vo. 80 pp. Simple paper over limp boards decorated in brown pulled paste. Worn, staining throughout, stamp of "Haus Landfort" on title, faintly penned name of "J. A. Luyken" to upper left of inner front board.
The complete libretto of The Magic Flute was first published by the time of the first performance at Schikaneder's theatre on Sept. 30, 1791 in Vienna. We have been unable to positively identify other copies of the present edition, relying only on pagination and printed date, in WorldCat; the Mozarteum catalogue of Libretti includes no examples of any Zauberflöte libretti printed in 1795. The present copy evidently belonged to the Amsterdam physician and botanist Johann Albert Luyken (1785-1867), who lived from 1823 at the country estate and former manor house Landfort in Megchelen ( Municipality Oude IJsselstreek ), in the Dutch province of Gelderland, located on the German border and with a history dating back to the fifteenth century.
An amazing cultural phenomenon in the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth century, there were known performances of The Magic Flute around the time of this publication in a number of cities throughout Europe, but with their printed libretti generally listing the respective locations. The present libretto is evidently not from any of these known productions and remains thus something of a mystery. A rare libretto of unknown origin, dating from just four years after the historic first performance of one of the composer's most beloved operas.
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