A Different Popularity, a New Beginning. Mozart at the Freihaus

Marcello Tanca

Member of the Collaboration Group

2017-01-01

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Abstract

Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte premiered at auf der Wieden, a viennese theater with a popular, vernacular repertory in the German language, which had one of its strong points in the Kasperliade, the popular farce with dialectal and fantastic traits. This repositioning by Mozart in Viennese theatrical geography is explained by one reason: after Joseph II’s death in February 1790, and still at war with the Othman Empire, Vienna couldn’t afford to host the subscription concerts the artist had held in the previous years, because of the absence of the young noble heirs and the wealthiest bourgeoisie. The composer needs a different popularity.