Premiere – September 30, 1791, Theater auf der Wieden, Vienna, Austria More so, apart from the Prague opera mentioned above, Mozart’s four last operas, Cosi fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and this one, all composed in the composer’s last years, while fighting his economical problems, health issues, and lack of reconìgnition, are today in the top-12. The fact of the matter is that The Magic Flute today is one of the most-played operas worldwide. Again Schikaneder together with other friends stepped up, and he finished the opera. At the premiere after the first act, Mozart was so negative about the response from the audience that he wanted to just quit and go home. So, Mozart reluctantly continued working on his masterpiece. To that, Mozart’s wife, Costanze Weber left for Baden.īack in Vienna, his friend and colleague as well as impresario Emanuel Schikaner insisted and facilitated the composer’s efforts. His La Clemenza di Tito, written for the coronation of Leopold II in Prague, didn’t go as well as Mozart had hoped. When finishing the score he was ill, under severe economic stress, and possibly quite depressed. His arrangements for string quartet, trio and other combinations number well over 250 and are played by hundreds of groups all over the world.The magic flute was Mozart’s last completed opera. In the 1960's he turned to film music to make a living, and also worked steadily as a freelance viola player.

By the time he was 21 he had written a string quartet and had already had a great deal of success with several large scale serious symphonic compositions, notably his Second Symphony, which had many performances and broadcasts by several major orchestras in the few years after its completion. Just before his twelfth birthday he started taking regular violin lessons and very soon began writing elaborate orchestral scores achieving a mastery in this field by the age of sixteen, by which time he had obtained a County Scholarship to attend the Royal College of Music in London, studying composition and viola.

By the age of eleven Carlo had developed a passion for the symphony orchestra. Carlo Martelli was born on the 12th December 1935 in London to an Italian father and an English mother.

Download the magic flute