 
B Y J O N A T H A N R O M E O
The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) is the product of a unique collaboration between the actor-manager Emanuel Schikaneder, who commissioned it in 1791, and the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—who at age thirty-five was at the height of his creative genius and in the last year of his tragically short life. It is a German Singspiel (sung/spoken) opera in two acts, with a libretto attributed to Schikaneder, though it was probably written mostly by C. L. Giesecke, an actor in Schikaneder’s company.
Mozart began working on the score in March of 1791, and it premiered in Vienna on September 30 of the same year. The speed of this accomplishment is especially astonishing when one considers that Mozart also traveled to Prague during this period to write La Clemenza di Tito for the coronation of Emperor Leopold II as King of Bohemia and began composing his Requiem. Schikaneder’s production was performed over one hundred times and toured in every country in Europe except Italy. Today, The Magic Flute remains one of the most performed operas in the international repertory.
On July 30, 1937, the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with the Vienna State Opera Chorus in a performance of The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival, in Austria. The two compact disks included here contain an original live recording of that performance, newly remastered with state-of-the-art technology. The production featured Helge Roswaenge as Tamino, Willi Domgraf-Faßbaender as Papageno, Alexander Kipnis as Sarastro, Jarmila Novotná as Pamina, Julie Osváth as The Queen of the Night, and William Wernigk as Monostatos. The keyboard glockenspiel heard as Papageno’s bells was played by the young George Solti (later to become one of the world’s most prominent conductors), who was Toscanini’s assistant for this production.
Well known for his fiery spirit, the seventy-year-old Toscanini conducted at a rapid pace that becomes evident in the opening notes of the overture’s allegro section. His extensive rehearsal periods were grueling, and the quick tempos demanded by the tireless conductor pushed the singers to their limits. When the singers finally put their manager up to the task of addressing their complaints to the maestro in his dressing room, Toscanini quietly retorted, “I thought you were all interested in the opera as much as I am.” Sadly, this was Toscanini’s last season at the Salzburg Festival. He resigned on February 16, 1938, in protest against the German occupation of Austria.
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